A Life Less Ordinary :: As written by Li Mei
by sitebender
Summary: A continuing saga as written by Li Mei about her less than ordinary life. Action, Drama, Kombat, a bit of comedy and Fatalities are abundant! Each chapter has an action sequence or fight scene. Good or bad reviews are greatly appreciated!
1. Chapter 0: An Ordinary Life

CHAPTER 0: AN ORDINARY LIFE

CHAPTER 0: AN ORDINARY LIFE

I think back to how it all started, before I ended up where I am now. It was a day like any other around my small village. Things were looking quite dull. The waters were the standard purple, and the morning sky nearly matched the hue.

This is not your world, this is Out World; my world. It has always been my world in one way or another. Born here, raised here, lived here, died here. Well, maybe not that last part quite yet, but I hope that when I die, it will be defending this rotten land that I call home.

In the morning I wait for the portal to open. A large metallic circle forms a purple light and first people exit from the portal into the village. Then the rest of us are allowed to enter through.

I go through each day to get to college, something that the rest of my village would not know about. They are content being farmers, herders, and of course fishermen.

Those that become fishermen either get poor, or die trying. Just like my parents. The both of them came together as fishers, bought a house boat together and saw the world. Well they saw the seas of the world, and that was the last time anyone saw them; including me.

They might still be alive, but either way, I do not care. If there is one thing that they had taught me, it is not to be a fisher. So each day I step through that purple portal, work my way through the town on the other side and attend a class of higher learning.

Sure, it is mundane, but one day through either school, I will achieve big things. Maybe not school, but maybe through my beauty, big things will just be handed to me.

Traveling through the town on the other side of the portal I get invites all the time. Little men with unibrows offer me koins to pose for them or dance at their establishments.

I always flick my long black hair and tell them, "As if!" Then they wonder, "As if what?" It happens all the time; I pass by the butcher shop to see a boy my age sweeping off the steps. He asks me on a daily basis, "Hey Li Mei! When do I get that date?"

At some point I just stopped saying no and quietly pass by him. I know that his head turns as I walk by, and I know he wants me to be his, but he is a butcher. That just means he sells the fish caught by the fishers.

While a butcher is a less dangerous job than a fisherman, we all need a little excitement. We all need a little danger, but here is the thing, ever since that day, my life has been nothing but danger and excitement.

Before that day the only excitement or danger that I had seen was in the great coliseum. Our grand emperor Shao Kahn would hold tournaments, tortures and executions there. Quite honestly, the tortures and executions do not appeal to me.

However, it was always the martial arts that would lure me into the giant stone coliseum. Warriors and peasants alike would combat one another as our mighty emperor looked presided over the battles from his thrown.

Kahn is known throughout our purple hued world as a conqueror; the apprentice that had overthrown our previous emperor. He has always draped his giant muscles in red armor meant for combat.

Covering his face has always been a white skull attached to his helmet. No one can remember ever seeing his face beneath the helmet. In fact one of the rumors in my village is that the large skull that covers Kahn's face is that of the previous emperor; a king named Onaga.

Another reason why I would attend the battles in the coliseum was to not end up in the pit of the coliseum itself. Kahn is a terrible man that any of us would die trying to kill him or die even for saying that thought out loud.

Kahn would have his four armed armies round up peasants like myself and publicly feed them to a black dragon.

They were fed to the dragon until it was finally slain by a beautiful princess named Kitana. It was announced that she was the princess of a different land that had been conquered by Kahn.

I watched her beauty as she spun around the black dragon. She would attack with her fingertips poised like claws. The dragon would lunge its long neck forward at her, and each time she would spin or twirl to avoid the dragon's mouth. Eventually she drew a blade out of her boot, and extended it to a giant metallic fan. The dragon's neck was slit by the fan and it choked to death, writhing in pain on the ground.

Her art was beautiful, perfect and distracting. Not only was the beauty of her martial art distracting, but her visual appeal was distracting to the men that she had to combat in the pit. After several victories, she was rewarded by becoming Kahn's personal assassin.

It has been more than a decade since seeing Kitana's victory over the dragon, and I have shadowed the martial arts ever since. Not only have I studied the martial arts, but I have followed her style, beauty and energy.

While I am untrained, I mirror and mimic the movements to the laughter of my friends. Many of them tell me, "Stick to standing still and looking pretty Li Mei!" Others would join in, "Keep the combat for the men!"

The arts that I study are beautiful, and beauty is for women. Of course the brutality is for the men, which is why both men and women can appreciate the martial arts.

My friends had scoffed at me, but now years later, I have shown them who I truly am. Now this is the story of how I not only saved my people, but became supreme empress of this world; my world. This is not about how I went through Kahn, it is about having to go through everyone else.


	2. Chapter 1: Invaders

CHAPTER 0: AN ORDINARY LIFE

CHAPTER 1: INVADERS

When I had arrived home that night, everything was just as it always was; dull. That was of course before the Tarkatans invaded my village.

The Tarkatans are a race of warriors that have been mutated either from the blazing sun of the desert wastelands or the glowing waste byproduct of magic.

The village was quickly overrun by the mutant warriors. It was quite a chaotic scene; the smelly, drooling animals came out of no where. Most of them literally dropped in from the ceiling to the roofs of the huts.

Our elected chief was the first to be taken prisoner. Next to be taken were our warrior's and hunters. You know anyone that was a male able to fight back against the Tarkatans.

Where was I? Like everyone else in the village I was catching a ride on the dream wagon. I was one of the lucky few that were not disturbed originally, because again, they were looking for those male enough to fight them.

Once most of the village was captured, they then bothered to wake the rest of us. I was one of the last few to be disturbed from my peace.

Of course by the time they bothered me, I had already awoken from my beauty sleep to find those uglies all over the place. It is indeed tough to sleep through all of the screams and the clash of swords. Well not really swords, but the swords of our warriors against the arm spikes of the Tarkatans.

When I first looked out of my window I saw tall red banners surrounding the village. The red usually marks the sign of power of whoever is invading. It is such a clichéd color. If they really wanted to say something they would have brought with them yellow banners or maybe even invaded our village during the daytime.

Just as I thought about getting some clothes to wear before the Tarkatans broke into my house, everything was halted when a few of them smashed through the front door of my place. Two Tarkatans burst in and I quickly dove under my bed. It seemed like the best place I could hide.

The smell of the Tarkatans was quite strong. I wondered to myself if they pee in their clothes. Naturally if I thought that I'm sure I would find out. Then I pondered that they could probably get away with that, because the cloths that hangs in front of their groins.

That was slightly disturbing to me, but fortunately my thoughts were disrupted by the fear of two Tarkatans entering my room. They were not as stealthily as they would have been if they were expecting a man.

The phrase, "No one's here," could be heard, followed by, "There is someone here." The feet of one of the two disappeared, but that is because he lunged on top of my poor bed and thrust his two arm spikes down through the bed, down to the floor next to me.

I was terrified that the blades could feel me, and allow the Tarkatan to know I was beneath of him. He already knew, but there was still that fear. So I pulled my body close to the wall at the head of my bed, just before the two sharp thick lances withdrew from the bed.

With a great force, both spikes once again stabbed straight into my poor white bed again. They greatly violated the cleanliness of my room.

"We are supposed to capture villagers as slaves, not kill them as sheep," said one of the Tarkatans. There was a response of, "No one would ever know they were not killed in resistance." After that brief discussion (the only kind with Tarkatans), the one on my bed hopped off to the floor at the foot of my bed.

There was safety for a mere moment. That moment came before the time when the Tarkatan at the foot of my bed heaved my bed into the air. I was absolutely shocked he could do that, but I guess when your arms are made of steel, you can do that.

The Tarkatan hissed at the sight of me and the other turned his head and hissed as well! I rolled out from beneath of my bed and took a fighting stance, only to hear them laugh to one another.

I felt awkward when they laughed at me during one of my most vulnerable moments. Fighting in my sleepwear, so I had to ask them, "What is so funny?" "Your stance," hissed one of the two Tarktatans. There was a moment of pause, before he continued, "A bluff. Women of Outworld do not fight."

The two burst into laughter once more and looked at one another. Then the other Tarkatan added, "Thinks she is Princess Kitana!" I gave him a high kick under the chin and once he hit the ground, I told him, "My thighs aren't big enough to be Kitana's!"

His Tarkatan partner merely looked at what I had done with sheer laughter, before he took a look at me and told me, "Try that on me!" I have learned that you never do the expected to someone asking for it. Instead I went low on him, with a complex sweep that had my left leg on the front of his ankle and my right leg behind his knee.

The knee buckled and he was sent to the ground without his laughter following. The arm spikes were drawn and he stood up to make an animalistic noise at me. There was quite a lot of drool coming out of his mouth, and with his arm spikes erected, I was slightly creeped out.

He lunged at me, I rolled to my back and kicked him so hard that I sent him to the ceiling! When he came down, there was plaster following him and I quickly rolled out of the way before he hit the ground where I was.

When I rolled to my feet, the other Tarkatan drew his blades and threw a purple spark at me! It was however quickly dodged, because apparently Tarkatans must need glasses.

After that, I sent him some jubilation. I clashed my wrists together and pulled my left wrist back into the air as I took a particular stance. A tiny ball of happy light was sent his way and into the body of the Tarkatan.

He shook and shuttered like it affected him, when in all reality it is a mere magic trick. The trick was taught to me by one of the people in my village when I was younger. If anything, it is meant to dazzle inferior minds, hence why the jubilation was so effective against the Tarkatan.

My thoughts were interrupted, when the other Tarkatan I had sent to the ceiling joined the fray once again. He leaped at me and wrapped his arms around my upper body. My arms were trapped under his. The drool from his disgusting body was touching my purely cleansed skin.

He told me, "You'll be a slave of Shang Tsung yet." I struggled, but he lifted me off of the ground and continued to drool on me. Granted my style usually makes the guys drool, but when they are constantly drooling, it is meaningless.

While my feet were off the ground, I swung my foot forward and slammed a stomp straight into his thigh. If you're thinking I meant to kick him somewhere else. I may have, it's just difficult to hit a bulls eyes that small.

Even with the stomp to his thigh, he kept a hold of me. I stomped my bare foot once again into his leather clad thigh. This time I dug the heel into the muscle. It still didn't do much.

Meanwhile, the other Tarkatan had finally been made aware that he was alright from my ball of jubilation. He dusted himself off and was quickly in the fight once more with his twin arm spikes drawn.

He put his left arm forward and drew his right arm back with the blade extended like he intended to cut into me despite the fact the other Tarkatan was hold me. I made the decision to keep using my feet, because the Tarkatan still had his face pointed at me. So I punted him in the chin with my right foot, then with my left foot.

The pair of kicks stopped him from spinning; however he was still upright, so I pounded both of my bare feet into his bare chest. That is what finally sent him staggering back and what gave me more time to deal with the Tarkatan holding me.

I did the disgusting and wrapped my legs around his body behind me. Then I used all of the drool from the Tarkatan that leaked onto my shoulders to use it and slip out of the grasp.

The Tarkatan was just as surprised as I was! I looked up at him from the floor, he tried to stomp on my head, but I pushed his foot aside and gave him the stiffest kick I could muster into his stomach.

That is when I noticed where the spark that was thrown by the Tarkatan ended up. My clothing cupboard was on fire and had been for a while. Not a massive fire, merely just the doors were on fire.

I couldn't really think about that right now, instead I took my opportunity of the reeling Tarkatan. He kept a hold of his stomach from where I kicked him, so I kicked him once again in the stomach and it sent him backward.

His rear went onto the window sill, but he held onto the sides of the window to keep from going all of the way through. That is when I gave him yet another kick, this time right in the neck, which did not quite send him through. I would have kicked him in the face, but quite honestly, I was barefoot and Tarkatans have knife like teeth.

The Tarkatan kept a hold of the window, so I kicked his left hand, and then pounded my right foot into his chest! That sent him awkwardly back through the window and I threw his legs out of my home!

That left the last Tarkatan, but if I was not through with them soon, I am sure they would have reinforcements flooding my house! The other Tarkatan was up and ready for me when I turned around!

He lunged with his right arm and I dodged him and pulled his arm spike straight into my cupboard. His arm spike was right above one of the flames on the cupboard and I felt a little bad for cooking his hand like that. Then I felt even worse for all of my clothes that he probably tore through.

He swiped at me a few times with his left arm and I merely stood back out of his reach. The cupboard opened as the Tarkatan tried to withdraw his arm spike from the rough wooden doors. That gave him more reach, but like before, I did what I could to stay away.

I was out of range from the Tarkatan, but he kept his left arm spike still pointed at me incase I would ever get close again. With the arm spike extended, I was a great distance away from his body. This was quite a stalemate.

When I asked him, "Are you stuck there?" He merely growled at me, and I told him, "Yeah, I think you're stuck too." The spike of his left arm continued to be pointed at my head as he tried to yank his right blade out of the cupboard.

With each tug, the Tarkatan could have been freed and my face could have been lanced. I then decided to tell him while I had the time, "Know what else you are?" There was merely another fierce growl, before I told him, "You're ugly. That's what you are! Ugly!"

There were more angry growls at me from the beast, as I walked further away from him. "They could put you in a zoo though. People would pay to see your brand of ugliness."

There was an absolute stalemate in this battle, so with confidence I said, "So if you're stuck. I guess that means flawless victory." I said it with such a smile, but I spoke too soon, because then the other Tarkatan threw his arms through the window once again and grabbed me! I screamed from being startled.

His arm spikes were not drawn thankfully! His torso was in the window and his body was reached out to grab me. The Tarkatan tried to yank me through the window, but I struggled and he had no leverage. That is when the other Tarkatan yanked his arm free from the cupboard.

With a fierce swiftness, the Tarkatan dashed forward at me! I cringed and braced for the impact, which shifted my weight and moved the Tarkatan that held me.

The left arm spike lanced straight into the top of the head of the Tarkatan holding me. The arms of the Tarkatan fell limp from around my body and the entire body of the Tarkatan was being held up by the arm spike through its skull.

When arm spike was withdrawn out of its skull, a tremendous amount of blood poured from the top of the skull and onto me! The head and body of the Tarkatan fell to the floor.

There was blood all over my right side and I stood in a puddle of it. I could not waste any time though in being squeamish, so I took the head of the Tarkatan that just lanced the other one. With great force of my own I threw his head against the wall, but it did little good.

Even thought I smashed his head into the wall, the Tarkatan backhanded his right arm with the spike extended. Fortunately it was his forearm that pushed me, and not the arm spike that would have split me in two.

I was thrown to the middle of the room where my bed once laid. The living Tarkatan shook off what I had done to his head. It roared at me once more, and then charged toward me!

However, he slipped in the pool of the blood of his partner's blood. It was perfect, with the Tarkatan unable to keep its balance, the beast drew the spikes into his arms.

Without hesitation, I rushed toward him and kicked him twice in the stomach. It sent him down to his hands and one knee. When he got up from his hands, he was still on one knee in the pool of his partner's blood.

He had the look in his eyes once again that he was going to kill me. Well it's more a look that he was going to draw his arm spikes. He held his arms in front of his body, then reached back to extend his arm spikes.

When he stood to his feet once more, in a split second, I kicked with sheer force to punt his left forearm. The force of my right kick sent his left hand and forearm pointed to his face. His left elbow was bent and the blade of the spike was stuck diagonally in his face.

I could see the red eyes of the Tarkatan were glazed over, and there was a silent hush that stopped the battle. The Tarkatan then began to scream, which I felt was giving it enough strength to muster and get the blade out of its head.

The Tarkatan roared as it tried to remove the wedged the spike from its face. I didn't like the idea of the fight continued, and me being covered in even more Tarkatan blood. I lifted my foot and stomped the left forearm once more.

With the force from the kick sent the sharp edge deeper into the face of the Tarkatan. I could see the life grow dim from the Tarkatan as it fell backward to the floor of my bedroom.

There it was, on the floor bleeding, and hopefully dead. Two Tarkatans were now dead on the floor for invading my house.

When I looked over to my cupboard, I saw the entire thing in flames. I tried to think of the positives. At least I was alive. I was alive to buy more clothes. Still alive to buy more clothes with koins that I don't have.

I uttered the words that summed up my night, "The end of a perfect night playing X-Box and going to sleep only to have my village taken over." Then I looked at my right shoulder to see all of the greasy red blood from the first Tarkatan.

Then my gaze was caught by a glowing red light in the doorway of my bedroom. Beyond the doorway was sheer darkness, except for the single tiny red light that glowed.

I heard the accented voice of a man from the doorway. "That was quite a bit of entertainment you just put on love."


	3. Chapter 2: Red Light

With a stare to the red light in the darkness, I asked, "Do these two things dead on my floor belong to you?" With a coy voice in the darkness, I heard, "They did belong to me, just like everyone else in your village."

With a rhyme, "Should I presume that you are Shang Tsung?" From the darkness emerged a man with an unshaven face and a reseeding hairline. "No baby," I'm Kano.

"Who?" I asked. "I'm a mere leader of men. Commander of armies, and lovers of all things fancy," he told me with his accented voice. "Yeah, you're Kano," I stated. "Ah so you've heard of me," he said with a smirk as he guarded the doorway of my bedroom.

"Before just now?" I wondered with a hesitant pause, "Never." "That's a shame," said Kano who kept his crooked smile, before he asked, "I would like to get to know you better. Tell me your name little vixen."

"Sorry. I don't give my name to strangers," I tried to tell him. Unfortunately, he retorted, "We are hardly strangers." I couldn't wait to hear his logic behind that, so I asked, "Tell me how we are hardly strangers when I've never heard your name before."

"Well you see my dear. We're going to get married one day," he said without a smile. "I know a gorgeous little place in the Botan Jungle of Earthrealm. Gorgeous waterfall in the background, you'll be gorgeous bride, envied by all and I'll be the dashing, handsome, rugged groom." I told him, "Sorry. I like my men to have both of their eyes, and I'm kind of partial to men in uniform."

"Hey, like all gentleman I prefer a blonde babe," he said, before he gave another smile and added, "But I'd settle for you." I asked him, "So wait. Does that mean you prefer blonde babes or do you mean just blondes and you called me babe?" "I meant the latter babe, but now that I think about it, I could swing with the first one," he told me with his accented voice.

In a fit of needing my ego fed, I asked the creepy man, "So you think I'm a babe?" He replied, "Sure do love." He then blatantly looked down at my body from head to toe and added, "In the night's darkness, I've never been able to see so much."

With that bit of poetry from a scummy man, I grabbed a sheet from my bead and wrapped it around my body. His only response was, "Aw that's a shame you'd cover up a view of the stars like that." I suddenly had the urge that I wanted to gouge out his remaining eye with a fork or some sharp and painful object.

Kano kept his focus and asked once more, "So is that what you usually sleep in or do you have something even more provocative in a closet of yours." My response was to list off a few things, "First of all, what I sleep in is none of your business. Second of all, my clothes have all burnt to a crisp over there." I pointed with a gesture from beneath the sheet to the husk that was my cupboard.

Then I started to tell him, "Third," and screamed the rest at the top of my lungs, "Don't look at me!" He had his palms toward me as his elbows were bent. "Calm down babe, you don't want to attract anymore attention."

The coy words sprang from my mouth, "Yeah, I might attract another creep with no eyes into my bedroom." I kept the sheet wrapped around my body as I followed up with, "So what's the story with your red eye? Shouldn't you cover that thing up with an eye patch like a pirate?"

"The story behind the red eye is that it's very beneficial to me," replied the accented Kano. "It's not beneficial for you getting a date, I can tell you that," I laughed to him. "I get plenty of dates," retorted Kano, but I was quick to ask, "Are they living?"

"Only if they don't say no," he said rather wickedly. I tried not to be phased, he could just have said that, but then of course he did have two minions break into my house. To let him know just how not phases I was, I asked him a quick follow up, "Is that a metal plate over a quarter of your face or is it your skull and you're really a robot underneath of there?"

"A robot?" asked Kano. "I'm not some piece of well written fiction dear," he added with a rough look on his face, before he added, "Tell you what, look into my eye and tell me what you see."

After he said that, I let out quite a scream as a red burning laser came from his red eye and seared into my skin. The white sheet from my bed was left burning with a hole straight through it.

I twirled around out of the path of the laser and the sheet flailed from around my shoulders. I then unfurled the sheet and threw it into the air at Kano. He however used his eye laser to cut the sheet in half and use his arms to pull it apart.

"Aw come on love, don't be frightened at my special talent!" exclaimed Kano as I hid behind my overturned bed. He then added, "You'll find out I've got so many more special talents." Instead of walking around the bed, he merely stood there, waiting for me to appear.

"We're in luck too. Most of my other special talents need a bedroom," he said with great laughter. I could only respond by shooting my hand over the bed with my middle finger pointed up at the ceiling. Before he could laser my finger off, I pulled my hand back behind the cover of the bed.

Just as I pulled my hand to safety, his eye laser beamed overhead and into the floor just beyond me. Kano then exclaimed, "You've got to come out from behind there sometime baby!" However, I didn't respond. Instead I looked at the burned skin that he left from the laser on my forearms.

Kano waited a brief moment for me to appear again, before he told me, "If you don't come out, I'm going to make you come out." With that said Kano's eye laser began to burn through the bed and carve into the floor beside me.

A powerful laser like that has never been seen before. Let alone a portable one that is put into the eye of a man with sheer insanity. I screamed out for him to "Wait!" "Screw you babe, you had your chance! I'm not waiting!" is the response that I heard from Kano, before he began to cut holes into my mattress again.

Instead of randomly cutting through, he cut straight through the middle of the mattress as a slice. It took a while to cut, but he went from the top to bottom. Kano made a clean cut as a way to systematically find out where I was.

As his laser was almost through cutting through the mattress, I maneuvered my body past his laser. I was at the end of the mattress furthest from the wall. So once he finally cut through the final inch of mattress, I held onto it. Then I charged forward and rammed my shoulder into his stomach as hard as I could.

My body collided into his so hard; he fell over backward onto the floor next to the doorway. I held him down with half of my mattress as he told me, "We have this backward. It's supposed to be mattress, you, and then me on top."

After he said that, I saw his red eye focus on me once more. I remembered what happened the last time, so I pressed my body close to the mattress. The laser went off and seared into the ceiling above us.

I drew my right heel far into the air and slammed my knee down into his pelvis. The eye beam stopped as he yelled out in an embarrassing pain, and then exclaimed, "Babe none of this is at all fair! Fighting with a mattress, low blows! You've obviously never been classically trained."

"I have been trained by some of the best in Outworld," I told him, but he was not impressed. "Been seasoned by years in battle I have," he told me as he still held himself from pain.

My right heel was drawn high into the air once again, as I asked, "How is your eye laser fair?" Before I could throw my knee forward once more, Kano pulled his arms out from beneath of the mattress and grabbed my arms.

Kano quickly put his boots into the air and fit them under my hips. I was left with my rear in the air, and he threw his head forward. The metal face plate on the right side of his head smashed into my forehead, and I'm sure would leave a huge bruise.

He then rolled me off of him and said, "Using my eye is fair play, because it belongs to me." He stood up quickly and looked down at me as I held my head reeling in pain.

When I realized he was on his feet, I tucked my knees into my chest and did a backward summersault and then stood to my feet. We glared at one another, before he reached to his boot and drew one of his two knives. The blade of the knife was quite broad.

"Now when I get a knife involves, now that's not fair," he told me with a smile as he sadistically licked the steel of the blade. I thought to myself, this is wonderful; a man with a laser for an eye has two knives. So I asked him, "Why do you need twin knives if you have a laser in your eye?"

"Cause I've always had the knives, longer than I've had the eye," said Kano as he clanged the tip of the blade against the metal plate on his face. "So we're not getting married are we?" asked Kano, and I gave him my immediate answer, "Not to you!"

We continued our stare off, until he asked, "So how do you want it?" He then gestured with his blade, "The knife?" Then he clanked the knife against his metal plate again and said, "Or the eye?" I immediately said, "The knife!"

Once I said that, he threw the knife at me and it went whirling through the air. I bent my knees and smoothly avoided the blade from plunging into my heart.

The knife ended up staked into the door frame as Kano ran toward me and performed a hopping spin kick that I just didn't expect. I was sent backward to the floor.

When I looked up at him, I saw him reach down for the second knife, still holstered in his left boot. He drew it and rushed toward me, as I rolled over to my hands and knees to stand.

I stayed low and kicked out his ankle which sent him down to his knees. Then as I rose up and twisted my body, to kick him in the head while he was on his knees. Hey if he's not going to fight fair, either am I.

Just as my shin would have connected with his head, he ducked underneath. I spun around and Kano took his second knife and plunged it deep into my outer thigh with his right hand.

My rear fell back on the floor of my bedroom, with my hands on Kano's hand. The knife was still in my leg when I hit the floor and my head was the last thing to fall.

I lifted my head to look up at Kano as I felt the blood run everywhere. When my eyes looked to his red eye one last time, he decked me in the mouth and my head fell back to the floor once more.

The grasp I had on his hands faded as he took the knife from my thigh. One of the last things that I remember was him licking my blood from off the blade. When my vision faded, I heard him laugh as he said, "hmmm. Tastes like candy."

My head rolled to the side, my eyes rolled back and the last thing that I saw was the open skull of the first dead Tarkatan.


	4. Chapter 3: Waking Up

CHAPTER 3: WAKING UP

When I woke up, the first thing that I saw was a bright red glow. I rolled around on the warm dusty floor, before I thought of the events that lead me to be here.

Then once my eyes began to focus, I could see black bars between myself and the red glow. I knew that I was in a prison cell with the bars. It wasn't so much that I feared being in a cell, but I feared being in such a dark eerie place. There were no voices, just the shallow sound of the red glow beyond the bars.

My focus soon drew to the glow of red. It was lava that slowly moved past a stone walkway outside of the cell. The view was surreal; not just to be so close to lava, but also to be trapped so close to lava inside of a prison cell.

For the first time, I lifted off of the dark floor to survey my surroundings more. My black hair still draped down on the floor I noticed that I was still in my purple pajamas. I could see that my thigh was heavily bandaged. It was a thick white bandage, with a big stain of my red blood.

That was two weeks ago when I had awoken in this prison cell. Every day since I have seen my people filed one by one down the pathway near the lava. They exit their cells each morning and return each night. Well I only assume that it was morning and night, because I cannot see any form of daylight. There is merely the red glow of lava that lights this prison.

I have occasionally stopped one of my people as they pass by to ask, "Why am I not taken with?" Some have told me that, "You are lucky to not be taken with." That has been what they've told me, until I asked one of the women, "Where do you go each day?" "To build a fortress," she replied.

When I retorted to her that, "If we knew how to build a village, we wouldn't have been invaded." She tried to tell me, "It matters not." Someone from behind didn't allow her to finish her statement. A guard raised his foot and stomped her in the spine.

The woman fell to the ground dangerously close to the lava. With a devious tone, the guard yelled to her, "You were spared from the lava for another day of labor." She was horrified, I was horrified, and the guard then jammed his spear into my cell.

He tried to stab me, but instead I recoiled further into the darkness. The guard then yelled in to me, "You will be out here soon enough with her to construct Shang Tsung's fortress." I could not say anything to respond; instead I just looked at the floor away from the guard and the woman.

In the corner of my eye, I saw the woman stand back to her feet and continue past my cell. The name Shang Tsung ringed familiar, but from where? One of the Tarkatans had mentioned it. This Shang Tsung was a powerful man. If he used my people to create a fortress, he must have a grand empire! He has an empire full of mutated men with spikes in their arms and men with lasers in their eyes.

Meanwhile, my people are humble. We are a small village on the shores of Outworld. Most do not concern themselves with anything outside of our known region. There are few like myself that strive for something better than just our humble village. Those are the people that leave the village and never look back.

I however have a soul. I appreciate my small village and its simplistic lifestyle. It has always been my indulgence to go to the larger cities. In the cities, I have experienced their culture, styles and fabulous fashions, but I have always returned home to the simple life of a villager. My village is my sanctuary, and I have been worried since I woke up if the village still stands.

The night after I had seen the woman almost pushed into the lava. I called out to anyone that could hear me, "Hello? Is anyone out there?" There was no response.

I hobbled my way next to the thin black bars and pressed my face between two of them. "Can anyone hear me?" I whispered. Once again there was no response, until I saw a small rock thrown into the stream of lava beyond the walkway.

It was a sign, so I called out once more, "Who is out there?" This time I heard a response, "If you are going to talk, you must whisper." I suppose that should have been an obvious statement. I whispered, "My name is Li Mei." There was a hesitant reply, "Quilan was mine."

"The butcher?" I wondered aloud. "That was weeks ago. I am now a nameless slave to a master I have never seen." It was a long answer to a simple question. I asked again, "But you were still a butcher right?" Fortunately he gave me the simple answer of, "Yes."

I whispered another question, "Are you still good with a knife?" He answered with a smile in his voice, "I never was. I cut the head off of fish." "Ever cut the head off of something bigger?" I asked him, before I added, "Say a guard?"

"I've never performed a fatality on anything bigger than a swine," he answered. I took on a chipper smile for someone in such dark despair, before I told him, "Perfect." "What do you need from me?" he asked from the cell next to mine.

Without a hesitation, I answered him with my forehead and mouth against a bar, "Just making conversation with you Quilan." He asked me, "Discuss something better than death girl. One of us was killed out there today." I kept my forehead against the bar and closed my eyes as I asked, "How?"

"One of the commanders found out that a woman had spoken to another this morning," said Quilan with a slight pause. "She was sent to the summit of the fortress. Once she completed her work for the day, then the commander had two of the guards throw her off of that summit."

"What was her name?" I wondered to him, only to hear his reply, "We no longer have names. It is something we are forbidden to have." "Like talking?" I whispered. There was no response for a brief moment until I heard, "Yes."

We could hear the footsteps of a guard as he approached toward us. I quickly withdrew into the darkness of my cell. Quilan did the same perhaps, but I had yet to see his face. I only heard the soothing sound of his deep voice.

Once the guard passed, I heard Quilan again as he told me, "The guard that did not punish the woman immediately." "Yes?" I interjected. "He was taken care of the commander himself. The commander tore the heart out of the guard's chest. Then he told everyone that not only the slaves replicable, but the guards are too," continued Quilan.

"The guards are there out of fear of their master," uttered Quilan, before he added, "But commander Kano is there for his own sadistic pleasure." With my hands wrapped around a pair of bars, I asked him, "Kano did you say?" "Yes," whispered Quilan.

With a name like that I knew there was only one Kano in the world, but I still asked, "Does he have a strange accent?" "How do you know Kano?" wondered Quilan. I told him that, "I don't." "He certainly knows you," he retorted.

It interested and horrified me to know, but I continued, "How do you know he knows me?" "He asks the guards each day of your condition," replied the voice from the cell next to mine. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" I wondered aloud.

"I think he is in love," replied Quilan, before he told me, "That is why you are left here each day. The others and I are taken out and forced to build that fortress." "What will happen once the fortress is built?" I asked in a whisper.

Quilan replied with a grim statement, "Unless the master needs a fortress built in the other world; I am sure that we will all be slaughtered." "Is that why you talk with me now?" I asked with a hushed voice, only to hear the response, "I have seen you every day in our village. Now I have seen you every day as we pass your cell. Never once have we spoken."

In my mind, I wondered what he was getting at. With a whisper he added, "But I whisper with you now, because talking would get us killed. Before our village was turned into rubble I have had countless opportunities, but never once said hello. My gaze has always shied away from yours." I asked him, "What are you trying to tell me?"

"You are the shining jewel of our poor village," he whispered from his cell. "If it was not for you, there would have been no beauty in our dusty world. To see you each day is what keeps me alive," he continued with intermittent pauses. I definitely had to ask him, "Why do you tell me this now?" Before his response, I could hear the footsteps of the guard on duty.

I greatly wanted him to hush his answer, at least until the guard passed. Instead I heard, "Because if I die before telling you, then it would be as if I never lived."

With that poetic thought, I looked to the other side of my cell. A guard glared through the bars at me with my face pressed against the bars. It was quite obvious he was angered at where I was in the cell.

My expression brightened to shock when I saw him outside of my cell with his arm back. With a fierce motion, he threw his arm forward and jabbed a spear through the bars toward me. He screamed "Silence!" as I dodged the blade at the tip of the spear.

There was a small spark from off the sharpened tip of the spear as it hit the wall. I looked up at the spear as the guard quickly dragged it back through the bars.

He was not done however; he poked the spear through the bars once more. This time his aim was for one of my thighs. I moved my body to one side of the cell and avoided the tip of the spear once more.

Although now it was slightly more dangerous, the guard moved his entire body to push his end of the spear. While the end of the spear in my cell came toward my shins! It was quite easy to avoid, with the lift of one of my legs.

Undaunted, the guard moved his body once more to move the spear. The barb on the spearhead tripped the back of my calf and I fell straight to the floor on my back.

The long wooden spear was almost dragged out of the cell once more, but just as it was almost out, the guard jammed it back in toward my body. Still on my back, I put my right leg on the cell wall and lifted my back and butt off of the floor! The spear went straight beneath me. My left foot, head and shoulder were still on the floor. The blade of the spear was so deep into the cell it was beside of my head, underneath of my arched back.

I pushed off of the wall with my right foot and quickly rolled to my knees as the guard tried to slice me with the spear. I leaped over the blade to avoid another deadly swipe. Time after time, the guard tried to slice into me, and each time I managed to avoid the blade.

Finally to end his spear fishing for my flesh, I grabbed onto the wooden pole of the spear, just beneath of the barbed tip. With a maniacal grin, the guard tried to yank the barb of the spear into my side, but fortunately I was on the side that didn't have the barb.

We were caught in a brief tug of war, and I did think to let go of the spear with the hope he would fall backward into the lava. What good would that serve if the guard was melted by lava? Five more guards would just come into the cell and throw me into the lava.

As we tugged the spear back and forth, the guard threw his body to possibly impale me with the tip. However when he pushed it forward, the tip was jammed into the corner of the cell. The tip was stuck in one of the stones.

Naturally the guard viciously tried to yank the spear free, but instead I was the one to let go of it. I pressed my body against the wall and kicked right through the wooden pole of the spear. It was broken in half and the guard flew backward!

His arms flailed in the air and his end of the spear was thrown behind him into the lava! I grabbed my end of the spear and tried to dislodge it from the corner of my cell.

Meanwhile, the guard attempted to keep his balance; he turned around, as he still tried to maintain his balance! I could see that his toes were at the end of the stone ledge and he was about to fall into the lava. The steam had to be tremendous on him.

Once the guard regained his balance, he turned around and screamed in agony. The steam had burnt his face to horrifying blisters. He looked into my cell with distain, just before I pulled my portion of the spear from the stone.

I took a wide stance in my cell and held the half spear in both of my hands. "What's Kano going to do when he finds I have your spear?" I asked him with a smile. The skin continued to blister off of his face, as he reached to his side for the keys.

This time it was my turn to thrust the mere point of the spear through the bars at him. I did not push much of the point through, strictly out of my fear that he would get the spear back. The tip of the spear never really came close to the body of the guard, as he unlocked the door to my cell.

To my knowledge, it was probably the first time the door had even been open with me inside of it. I gripped the spear while the guard stared at me through the opened door of my cell. It was a standoff, as he tried to estimate the best way to attack me.

His face was red and scalded from the immensely hot steam that rose above the lava. The guard then knew what to do. He gripped the bars of the doorway and threw his feet forward into the cell. His feet went into my stomach and I was sent to the back wall of my small cell.

My half of the spear hit the ground as I rolled away from his next attack, which was a straight jab that slammed into the wall. Then with his other hand, he gave me a stiff overhand chop. It wasn't the most calculated attack, but it still hit my shoulder.

He pushed his body off of the wall and stepped into me with a snap kick. I was able to put my hands up and block, but he hooked my leg with the next kick and took me down.

The brutish guard pounced atop of me quickly. I used my elbows to try and move back from his grasp.

After my body slipped away from him, he still had his hands on my thighs, which is always an awkward position to be in. I squirmed and managed to get my legs away from him. I then bent my right knee into the air and kicked him in the head.

The guard was still undaunted, so I gave him kick after kick to the head. He then arched his spine to keep his head away from my leg. My next kick missed and had my knee around his neck.

He slowly repositioned himself and darted his right fist into my face. After which, he moved my body toward the bars so that I could not move my head away from his open handed strikes.

From the cell next to mine, I heard Quilan, "What is happening over there?" I wanted to answer him, but I was too busy being pummeled. That is until I finally moved my head away from the bars and the guard punched his bare knuckle straight into one of the metal bars.

The guard shook his hand in a brief moment of pain, before I crawled out from beneath of him. I stood once again, and lifted the spear from off of the ground.

Close by, my opponent rose, ready for my attack. When I drew back to swing the spear at him, he braced for the impact. What neither of us expected was the blade of the spear clanged against the stone wall. The spear was too long to swing in the tiny cell.

There was laughter from the mouth of the guard. So I kept the spear still against the wall, raised my knee and kicked him with the flick of my shin.

I am sure that the guard barely felt anything, under his padded armor. So I next flicked my shin higher, into his chin! His head was sent back and he stumbled into the bars of the cell.

With the spear still in one hand, I thrust my right hand forward. He was slightly amused at my attack, but I used the butt of the spear to ram him in the stomach. I temporarily had knocked the wind out of him, so I grabbed the spear with both hands once more and rammed him a second time.

Then it was followed up with another kick that nailed him under the chin. Not just one, but a second and a third until he bled from the mouth.

The guard doubled over to spit blood from his mouth, before he decided to regain his stance. He stood right in front of the door of my cell. I swung the spear at him once more. This time instead of it hitting the stone wall, the tip of the blade hit the metal bars of the doorway right next to his head.

He was safe from the blade, and he took the opportunity to quickly throw two straight punches into my mouth. Then he followed it up with another stepping snap kick. The spear was dropped to the floor once more with the clang of the blade against the bars.

The last kick sent my tush against the wall once more, but I quickly faced my right side to the attacker. My left arm was positioned above my head and my right knee was in the air. I flicked my shin to send my foot into his chest with a scraping kick, which caused him to be sent backward to the open doorway of the cell.

Then I hit him with a wing arm, which is a quick, stiff forearm to the stomach. The impact sent him reeling to the outside of my cell. He however tried to outsmart me as he tried to shut the door.

Just as the door almost slammed shut, I slipped my bare leg into the doorway. The metal door was slammed on my bandaged thigh to an unbelievable amount of pain.

The guard continued to push on the door, and in fact I think he kicked it at some point. He was content on trying to sever my leg from the bandage down. The only thing keeping my leg from being sliced by the metal cell door was probably the thick bandage on my leg.

When the guard drew back a second time to kick the door on my leg, I threw the door open with all of my might. It knocked into the guard, and fortunately for him, he held onto the door and swung with it! If he didn't hold on, he would have surely gone into the lava past the walkway.

His brawny body was sandwiched between the door and the bars of the cell next to mine. I tried to slip through the doorway, but the guard shoved the door forward.

With a huge swing, the door came back my way and with that force, I couldn't block it anymore with my body. Instead I moved the tip of the spear from where it laid on the bars into between the latch of the door and the doorway.

The door never closed and I pushed the door open once more. Then with a painful spin, I was out of the cell! Although I was out, I still was not safe. Standing before me was the blister faced guard.

Although luck was in my still hands, or rather the spear was in my hands. The guard then posed with a stance to fight. I swung the spear around to point the blade at him.

Our new battleground was the stone walkway. On one side were darkened cells of my villagers. On the other side was the glowing red lava that flowed gently through the cavern like dungeon.

The guard shifted his weight as he gave a small leap and with side kick at me. It was bold of him, but I adjusted the spear, as the guard threw his body at me. The tip of the spear entered through the guard's stomach, despite his thick armor.

However, he wasn't dead! He was just horribly wounded! He threw his arms forward to try and grab my neck, but I only wedged the back of the spear into the stone floor and drove the blade deeper into him.

He rapidly lost blood, but that didn't mean he was dead. The guard grabbed my neck, and pulled at my hair as he tried to throw me to the lava beside the walkway. I had all of the leverage though; after all, there was no spear through my stomach.

The yanks on my hair continued, and luckily for me, I've always gone all out for the extra price of the best conditioners to strengthen my hair. Even if I didn't have a shower in two weeks, my hair was still just as strong as it ever was.

I was only able to get him to stop when I lowered my body and swept his right foot out from beneath of him. He released his grasp from me, and fell forward to his hands and knees.

Once again, his head was over the steam that rose from the lava and he screamed in pain again. Either in a fit of mercy or intolerable cruelty to the pain he was in, I took my left foot and swept his left arm out from beneath of him.

His body fell and the blade of the spear cut into him. Then even worse, part of his head splashed into the lava. It was a painful sight to see, as only one tenth of his head went in. Just above his left eye. There were screams to no end as he tried to move his head. Instead he caught on fire and the screams slowly stopped.

The word, "Fatality," could be heard from Quilan as he watched from his cell. The fire engulfed the head of the guard, and the steam melted the skin from his skull. That is when I noticed he still had the keys to the cells on his belt. With his torso beginning to catch fire, I moved quickly to get the keys from his belt.

Once I had removed the keys, I quickly used them to open the cell door to let Quilan out. When I opened the door, I greeted him, "You will be free now!" He merely stood there with his beautiful dark eyes as they gazed at me from top to bottom. "You can speak," I told him, before I added with a giggle, "Don't tell me that you'll only go back to speaking to me if we are imprisoned."

A smile overcame the tall man as he said, "No I will talk with you. This is just never what I fantasized about." "Fantasized?" I wondered, but then he elaborated, "For the past two weeks, I have fantasized, I would be the one to save you and I never even knew your name!"

"We're not out of here yet," I told him as I looked just below his neck. "Maybe you will still get to save me," I continued with a smile, before I added, "Not just fantasize about me."

From the cell next to Quilan's we were interrupted, "If it's out of here you want; I can get all of us out of here, if you just open my cell." Quilan stepped out of his cell and cautiously walked along the stone next to the lava. I followed closely behind Quilan to the next cell.

The only thing in the cell that we could see in the red glow of the lava behind us was a pair of legs. It was obvious that the prisoner was not even standing. He merely sat in the darkness. Quilan and I then heard the prisoner from inside the cell utter, "The two of you are going to need me to get out of this dungeon alive."


	5. Chapter 4: Freedom Fighters

CHAPTER 4: FREEDOM FIGHTING

"If you can help us, you should at least stand on your feet," I told the mysterious prisoner. He replied, "I apologize, if my manners are not the best given our circumstance." The man slowly stood up and remained in the shadows of his cell.

"What village are you from?" asked Quilan, to which we heard the man reply, "I recognize your voices, but not your faces. I've lived in the village longer than you two are old."

There was a pause, before the man asked once more, "Let me help the two of you get out of here." As I shuffled through the keys, Quilan stopped me with his hand and said, "No Li Mei. He is purposely being mysterious. Any other prisoner would be at his door, eager for us to let him out."

I did not hesitate when I pulled my hands and the keys away from the hand of Quilan. I firmly told him, "We're getting the entire village out of here."

When I tried to put the keys in the lock once more, Quilan stopped me, but instead of wondering why he stopped me; I shuddered his grasp away from my wrist. I then took a stroll down the stone walkway to peer inside of each cell. One by one it was a grim face that I recognized. A fisherman, a neighbor, they all looked far worse off than did. After all, I was at least able to fight, even with an injury to my thigh.

It was strangely obvious that no one seemed eager to see someone with keys. I heard no cries to be let out of cells. However, I heard the faint voice of the mysterious prisoner tell Quilan, "Get her back here." From behind me, Quilan turned his attention to me and called out, "Where are you going Li Mei?" Without stopping, I turned and continued to stroll backward as I looked at him. I bent my elbow and pointed my thumb behind when I told him, "I'm going to go look for my parents!"

After I turned around to continue down the stone walkway, Quilan ran silently behind me. He startled me as his dirty hands touched my bare shoulder. With a jump I lunged away from who had come from behind me. I was left a bit breathless as Quilan told me, "They aren't here." "How do you even know what they look like?" I asked, but Quilan merely stated, "Everyone in town comes to the butcher. Even if I don't know their names, I know their faces."

"Then where are they?" I wondered, but Quilan simply replied, "They're just not here. I haven't seen them at all and I've been here two weeks like everyone else."

In disbelief I continued down the walkway and looked in each cell until I reached the final cell. None of them contained my parents, so at the final cell I began to unlock door after door. Each cell I opened I greeted them with a voice of freedom. To the people that I knew, I asked the question, "Have you seen my parents?"

Many told me, "No." Others just shook their head that they didn't know where my parents were. Some people would shy away from me when I opened their cells. They would recoil into the unseen darkness.

Each cell door was unlatched when I greeted them. Unfortunately, there were even some that would step to their unlatched door and latch it again. It was quite frustrating. For every person released, they would not take their freedom. Instead they chose to remain.

Finally I came to the cell of the mysterious stranger. The man laughed from the darkness of his cell and Quilan barked, "What are you laughing at?" "No one wants to escape but the three of us," replied the man from his cell. I then put the key in the lock finally and Quilan stopped me from opening the cell door.

"I see the misery on everyone's face each and every day. We will return to the village and carry on our lives once more," said Quilan in a tirade, but the mysterious man from inside of his cell only gave us a sense of his pain, "You see them every day. You see their pain and misery, but you've never looked in this cell to see my pain. No one can see it like I do, because mine isn't pain. On my face is the drive to get out of here and take revenge."

Quilan deepened his voice as he said, "You're right stranger. I have never seen your face. I've always thought this cell was empty. Now step into the glow of the light, so that I may indeed see the drive on your face." Instead, the prisoner called out of his cell with a loud voice, "Who in this place wants to leave here." There was an intermittent pause, before he called out again, "Who wants to go home to see that your house is no taller than rubble?"

There was no response from anyone other than Quilan who told the prisoner, "Keep your voice down." A smug sound came from the mouth of the man in his cell, before he said, "No one wants to escape, because everyone here knows that we could be captured just as easily as we were before. These people don't want to escape, they want to be liberated!"

In the distance I could hear a deep horn blown. I spoke up and interrupted them, "I'm sure that's the alarm to call all of the guards you two." Only the man in the cell seemed to hear me, "She's right you know. We need to get out of here, before we're all killed for trying to escape."

Instead of being in a hurry, Quilan took the key from me and asked, "What about you? Why do you want to come with us?" A deep throated laugh could be heard from the darkness, "Must you really have to ask that? I am the only man of combat left in this place; the hunters were all killed in the invasion. The rest of you are either women or fishermen."

The hustle of guards could be heard from both sides of the platform. Meanwhile, with a step forward, Quilan approached the cell bars and asked, "Then why are you so lucky to be alive?"

The mysterious prisoner took a step forward out of the darkness toward the bars. "Because instead they took my eyes," he said, as Quilan and I both stared at the horrifying appearance of two empty eye sockets. Quilan was startled and took a quick step back and bumped into me.

"Your silence overwhelms me," said the eyeless prisoner, who then added, "You've either left me to die, or you're speechless at my appearance." Quilan and I stood stunned, until I glanced over and noticed that more guards approached along the stone walkway.

I left Quilan to be speechless and took a wide stance to fight. My arms were greatly parted and I lowered my posture. Then I realized, oh there is still a spear on the walkway in the body of the guard.

With some great force, I pulled the spear from the stomach of the guard who was still on fire. I readied the spear and noticed that it too was on fire. I tried to wave the spear to perhaps put out the flames. There was no luck, so I just held the spear on the portion that was not on fire.

I turned my head and told Quilan, "Let him out. Let him out now." Once that was said, two armored guards leapt over the flaming corpse. I heard the phrase, "Do what the woman wants and let me out!"

Both guards had long spears, much longer than mine, which was still the one that had broken in half. The kept their distance and jabbed at me with the spears. I deflected their attacks as I told them, "I bet you both want to accessorize your spears with flames." After that, I deflected yet another metal tipped spear, and continued, "Now that I've made it fashionable."

From behind me I heard the squeak of the cell door as it opened, along with Quilan's voice, "I'm freeing you, because it's humane, but I don't see how someone with your handicap can help."

I continued to spar with the pair of guards, until I heard the phrase, "Tell the woman to get out of the way." "Get out of the way!" screamed Quilan, to which I hid inside of my cell and screamed, "I'm not deaf!" The flames from my spear licked the top of the cell and lit the room.

Then my eyes amazed me, as a blue light radiated from the bodies of the two guards. The two of them slowly levitated off the stone walkway. Their bodies bent from the lack of gravity.

One of the two guards took his long spear and speared the ground to prevent from floating away. It was an amazingly strange sight. Meanwhile, the other guard threw his long spear into my cell with me. My only response was to cringe as the blade of the tip, grazed my left arm.

The stinging pain of my arm could not compete to my amazement as the two guards were carried away by the radiant blue light. They were then held over the lava that had eaten through the previous guard's forehead.

The first guard was dropped like a stone as the blue light quickly dissipated. The second guard was left to see the other eaten away in the lava. Dead before he could scream.

As for the second guard, he writhed in agony from being cooked from the steam that rose from the lava. He was being held up there, and tortured before what would probably be his death. Then I realized that he was the one that threw the spear at me and nicked my arm! I exited my cell once more with my spear still on fire, and I hurtled it at his heart.

Proving that I've never actually thrown a spear before, it staked its way into a rock stalactite behind him. It was a moment of relief for the guard, as he looked behind him to see the flaming spear stuck in solid rock.

The relief disappeared as the blue light dissipated and the second guard dropped like a stone into the lava. When I turned my head, I saw the eyeless prisoner, with his hands covering his face. There was the same radiant blue light around his head that had been around the guards.

Once the blue light dissipated, the eyeless prisoner dropped to his hands and knees. He uttered, "Wow it's been a while since I've done that." I attempted to get the eyeless up off of the warm stone walkway.

Meanwhile, Quilan kept a look out for more guards, as he heckled me, "I will need to teach you how to throw a spear when we get out of here." The eyeless warrior asked, "Why did she throw a spear?" Once the eyeless prisoner was to his feet, I told the two of them, "I'm not used to anything so long. It is a typical man weapon to conceal."

At that moment I noticed more guards raced our way down the stone walkway and told them, "We need to get out of here." Then I yelled out to everyone in their cells, "Does anyone want to get out of here? To stop being a slave and stand up to this evil emperor?" There was only silence, but I did see some sad faces pressed against the bars to look at the three of us.

Quilan told me to, "Finish your thought Li Mei." I had totally forgotten what my thought is, so I asked, "What thought was I thinking?" "Hey how about we get out of here instead kids?" wondered the eyeless prisoner.

Another guard leaped over the fire on the walkway to greet us with yet another spear. Meanwhile, behind the new foe that presented himself stood another guard. That second guard had the tip of his spear in the fire of the walkway with a bit of laughter in his throat.

I told Quilan, "Here, take him." I had referred to the weakened eyeless prisoner. However, Quilan told me, "No, I've got this one." The eyeless prisoner wondered, "Does he know what he's doing?" "I barely know him," I replied as I watched Quilan take a rather simplistic fighting stance. I then wondered to the eyeless prisoner, "And who are you?"

Quilan had his elbows tucked into his sides and he had his fists up in front of his face. Before the eyeless prisoner could answer, I asked another question, "Does he really think that he's going to fight them like that?" "Like what?" asked the eyeless prisoner? I uttered the statement, "I think he's going into a spear fight with his fists raised." "Is that how he fought the two other guards?" asked the prisoner as I continued to hold him up.

As I watched Quilan spar against one of the guards, I told the eyeless prisoner, "He's not the one that fought the two other guards, I did." Then I realized to ask, "So are you going to help with your strange blue glow?" The prisoner first asked, "Why aren't you fighting them then?" Then he replied to my question, "It's not a parlor trick girl. It causes a strain in my head, so I cannot do it over and over again."

Meanwhile, the two guards were having their fun as they cut up Quilan's arms, legs and body with the tips of their spears. One guard reminded the other, "If we kill the slave, it will be us building that fortress!"

The eyeless prisoner asked, "How is our friend doing?" "Not good," I answered, before I caught a shuddering glimpse inside of the baron eye sockets. I quickly looked forward to Quilan and added, "They're cutting him to pieces with their spears." Just then, the spear with the hot red tip cut deep into Quilan's arm.

Pain seared through Quilan and turned into a scream from his mouth. The eyeless prisoner commanded me, "Go help him. I'll be fine here." I leaned the prisoner against the bars of Quilan's cell, just as Quilan was tripped to the ground by one of the long spears.

The two guards were distracted as they moved in closer to Quilan with their spears pointed down toward his chest. The eyeless prisoner fell to his knees as he held onto the bars of the cell.

I came into the fray with a fierce leap. My left knee was raised and I decked one guard with my right hand, the other with my left hand. Before my feet landed back to the stone walkway, I was able to punch the first guard a second time with my right hand.

My feet hit the ground and I was in a couched position. The two guards staggered back a bit, so I stayed low and swept their feet out from beneath of them. Well it was less a sweep and more of they tripped on my extended leg.

The guard I had hit twice with my right fist, he hit his head on the hard stone walkway. The second guard however made an attempt to get back up.

He grabbed his spear, still with the red tip, and I raised my knee and flicked my foot to kick him straight in the face. His body spun around and landed face down on the ground.

As for the other guard, he stayed on the ground, especially when I told him, "Don't get up. I really don't want to hurt you again." His head fell back to the stone and he groaned.

Out of no where, Quilan came from behind me with a spear raised above his head. I told him, "No please don't," but with both hands, he jammed the spear into the heart of the guard that I told to stay down. There was no big squirt of blood like you would expect. Even when Quilan wedged the spear deeper into the guard's dying heart.

"Why did you do that?" I wondered to Quilan who then tried to dislodge the spear from the guard's chest. I could see all of the bad cuts, bleeding a deep shade of red down his sweaty body.

Quilan didn't look at me when he said, "It had to be done. He would get up and kill us when he had the chance." I exclaimed to him, "No it didn't!" Once Quilan dislodged the spear, he turned, pointed his finger at me and said, "This coming from someone that threw a spear at a man's chest that she knew was going to die."

"That was different!" I exclaimed, but he simply wondered, "This is an escape, not a slumber party. Even if you just so happen to be dressed for a slumber party." I told him, "Out of everyone that's died around me, he was probably the only person I purposely tried to kill!"

Quilan took it as a joke with a nod and a disbelieving smile. I then elaborated, "That guard was being cooked in the steam of the lava. He was in pain; I tried to be merciful to him. I missed my mark with my spear. Everyone else that has died around me has been by accident."

He still took it as a joke, as he walked in a half circle around me to the eyeless prisoner. He carried with him the spear. The eyeless prisoner spoke up, "I for one am happy that we have the killing machine on our side. Now can we please get out of here before we raise the death count to you, me or her?"

Quilan wouldn't go near the eyeless prisoner; instead he kept his gaze away from the face of the prisoner. I however, got close to the prisoner to help him up once again. "Good, now that it's settled, let's get out of here."

I spoke out to Quilan, "The reason why men prefer to use spears is to conceal their insecurities." The eyeless prisoner and I began to move, to which from the mouth of the eyeless prisoner, "You two can keep fighting, just as long as you both keep moving. Is that alright?"

As we hobbled by Quilan, I could see his eyes upon me. He then spoke up and told us, "We need to get Li Mei some pants." Blissfully unaware, the blind prisoner asked, "Oh yeah why's that?" "Because her ass is going to be a distraction," retorted Quilan from behind us. The blind prisoner quietly said with an unseen smile, "It will be a distraction now that I know about it."

I tried not to smile at the compliment; instead I preferred to be slightly disgusted by it. So I turned my head back to Quilan and uttered, "Now I know why you didn't speak to me. It is because I knew you would be a jerk."

The eyeless prisoner muttered into my ear, "Don't worry about him, we all have the same goal here to escape. His pride is just upset that you saved him. Some prefer death over being saved." Quilan must have heard him, because he then called out, "We also need to get him something to wrap over his eyes. Looking at his open sockets, are making me go blind."

With dismay, I uttered to the eyeless prisoner, "At least he chooses to fight for freedom with us." With equal dismay, the prisoner corrected me, "I think that he fights for your interest, not his freedom." "Either way, at least he's on our side," I quickly retorted, but the prisoner had a quick retort himself, "He's on your side, not our side."

"We still don't know why we need a blind man," screamed Quilan as he still stood there far behind us. After that, I heard the swift sound of a spear meeting meat. While I didn't see what happened, I am sure that was Quilan as he finished off the other guard.


	6. Chapter 5: Steam Rises

CHAPTER 5: FOLLOWING STEAM

Dungeons do not have exit signs marked clearly. I've never been conscious outside of my cell and the eyeless prisoner cannot guide me out. I did however finally ask him bluntly, "What's your name?" However, he chose to tell me mysteriously, "I will tell you my name when we get out of here. I don't want you getting all misty if I don't make it"

The two of us continued to move along the walkway and as I still supported the weight of the eyeless prisoner, I turned to Quilan and asked "Are you coming?" It was mostly out of frustration from the heat and not knowing where to go.

Quilan swiftly walked toward the two of us past all of the cells. He then spoke out, "Yeah, I was just finishing something off before we left." Once Quilan caught up to us with his spear in hand, from above us came the deep sound of the large horn again.

The three of us looked alert to any dangers in front of us or behind us. There was nothing that any of I noticed coming, so we quickened our pace as Quilan led the way.

As I passed each cell, I thought about uttering something grand like, "I will return when I've liberated you all!" Then I would raise my arms to glorious praise, but then I thought that I didn't want to get their hopes up. Nor did I want to hear any laughs or snickers. So instead I muttered to myself, "I'll be back to kill our captors."

He led us to a black staircase that towered itself over the lava. Quilan told the two of us, "Now we follow the steam." The top wasn't even visible, so I asked Quilan, "To the top?" "To the top," he replied, and the eyeless prisoner added, "To the top." It was quite a marvelously frightening sight, dark stone with tall long black spikes extending off of the sides. They spikes were not directly pointing up; instead they were slightly angled to the side.

I had to wonder aloud to Quilan, "So are the spikes a decoration, a safety net." "Or just plain deadly," Quilan said as he looked at the long spikes that extended out. It looked like if someone fell they could catch on one of the spikes as a last chance before the lava.

As the three of us examined surreal stairway, the eyeless prisoner was able to sense something. He called out, "Something is wrong." Quilan asked, "How can you tell?"

The eyeless prisoner faced above him and said, "Because dust doesn't fall from the ceiling for no reason." After he said that, Quilan and I could see tiny black rocks fall from above. The black chunks of rock fell behind the eyeless prisoner and we all raised our chins to look above us.

In the red glow from the lava Quilan and I could only see the wall of the cell that went straight up. We couldn't see the ceiling. Instead of continuing to wonder, I cried out, "Move!" Quilan ran a bit up the stairs as the small stones and dust continued to fall.

The eyeless prisoner and I were on the first few steps of the black staircase when Quilan turned around. He looked up back toward the wall. It was quite the distraction, with Quilan just standing there; it caused me to turn my head.

From the darkness and into the eerie red glow came a glimpse of three red creatures. With a hiss in their throats, two of them jumped directly at the three of us! I cringed in fear along side of the eyeless prisoner.

With a great force, I saw Quilan jam his spear up into the underbelly of one of the reptilian creatures. In the red glow I could briefly see that the creature was red with a lighter color underbelly. It had sharp teeth and dead eyes.

The creature gasped for air as the spear went straight through Quilan's spear. Even impaled the creature was still heavy and powerful, it took one last lunge with its claws at Quilan, before he heaved the strange thing off the side of the stairs to the spikes.

I caught all of that in a mere glimpse, just before the second creature crashed atop of me with its long razor sharp claws. Trapped between the hot rock steps and the large weight of the creature I cried out for someone to, "Get it off me!"

Beside me was the eyeless prisoner, he was knocked down as well, he just didn't have a creature digging its claws into his back. I could only see the creature out of the corner of my left eye as it lunged its head down at my head! I pulled my head away to see the sharp, salvia covered teeth crash onto the step next to my head.

The eyeless prisoner was the first to come to my aide. He blindly tried to shove the creature off of me. Instead the creature merely pressed its large hand on his chest.

He was shoved off over the lava and back onto the stone walkway! I could see the third creature drop from the wall and onto the stone walkway to go after the eyeless prisoner.

I lost track of the mysterious prisoner after that. There was a bigger concern for me, which was the creature on my back. The creature opened its mouth and let me feel the trickle of saliva on the back of my neck, but just before the mouth came down, Quilan gave the creature a swift kick to its head.

The creature really was not phased at all; instead it looked at him and hissed. That gave me enough time to tear its claws out from the flesh of my back. With a scream I rolled out from the crushing weight of the creature. I was still beneath of it, just not under its claws.

From beside us, I could hear the poor breathing from the impaled creature as it lied on the spikes. I caught the gaze of the creature's dead eyes just before it struck at me. Then when it did strike at me, I slipped my bloody body further down the stairs. The head of the creature crashed into the steps once more.

Quilan followed up with a kick to its neck, and I put my bare feet upon the creature's stomach. At this point I noticed that the creature had a metal harness on it. With all of my leg strength, I tried to push it. I attempted to move the creature to the side of the stairway. The creature gasped after being kicked in the neck as Quilan saw what I was trying to do. He put his shoulder into the front left shoulder of the four legged reptile.

He pushed with all of his body's strength and I pushed with my leg strength. As we both pushed, I moved my head away from its vicious claws and looked to the eyeless prisoner who was temporarily safe as another creature stared at him.

Quilan cried out, "One. Two. Three!" We then pushed and shoved the red creature off the side of the staircase to the lava. I quickly rolled to the side to see the creature hit the lava, which a lava splash isn't the best thing to look at.

I kept my head slightly hidden by the hot stone steps to see that the creature clung to the long black spikes that extended from the staircase. It was as I had thought; the long black spikes are a last resort to a lava bath.

The creature held onto two of the thick black spikes with its front legs. Once it had regained a sense of the situation, it tried to pull its long sleek body back to the stairway! It absolutely amazed me, how the creature kept its long red tail from hitting the lava!

My amazement turned to shock as the creature extended its neck quickly to snap its dagger teeth at my face! I pulled my head away and heard the jaw of the creature shut with a terrifying sound.

After that, I had no eagerness to look over the side; instead I looked over to see Quilan rip the spear from the belly of the impaled creature. That creature too was on the spikes, but it was done fro this battle.

Quilan bravely walked over and looked over the side of the staircase with his spear. He then raised the spear above his head and stabbed it down into the creature's fingers. There was a reptilian howl, but the creature did not drop into the lava. Instead I saw the creature's neck lash out like a whip to try and bite Quilan!

He quickly dodged the gruesome head of the red reptile. Then he went back to the edge of the staircase and stabbed the creature again with the point of the spear!

With another howl, the creature's lashed its neck out once more with its mouth open to bite Quilan. This time, he had the spear above his head and ready for the red reptile. He battered the creature's skull and raised his spear once more, while the creature drew its neck back in.

The creature's large head was lashed forward once more, and this time, Quilan had both arms above his head. He gripped the spear and thrust it down between the eyes of the creature! There was a spurt of red blood that went into Quilan's face, before the creature and the spear dropped into the lava below.

It was amazing to see the long necked lizard drop into the lava. Once the splash of red hot lava subsided, I peaked over the side again to witness the creature's body get slowly eaten away. It wasn't immediate like it had been with the guard, but the red reptilian body slowly dissipated and disintegrated.

Our attention was then diverted back to the walkway beside all of the cells. The eyeless prisoner heard the strange hiss from the tongue of the red creature. He knew one of the creatures was on the walkway with him.

Still weak from earlier, he crawled and rolled out of the way of the attacks from the creature. The eyeless prisoner quickly found his way into an open cell door. It was one of the many cells I had opened before.

Quilan looked in horror, while I started to wave my arms. I then yelled to the creature, "Over here!" It was a good attempt to attract the creature's attention, but the creature had someone closer to him to attack.

We saw the creature line its body up with the open cell. The creature then lashed out its long neck into the cell. There were horrible screams from inside! The screams drown out the sound weak breathing of the impaled creature. I noticed the face of Quilan grew mean as he looked at the creature with its head in the cell.

The screams continued as the creature used its teeth and head to drag someone out! It wasn't the eyeless prisoner; instead it was another from our village! The man screamed in pain, as the creature continued to drag the man by his leg. The creature pulled the man's body far from the cell so we could clearly see in the glow from the lava.

He was pulled until his leg was pulled off and devoured by the creature. The creature then placed one of its hands on the man's chest. Shortly thereafter the man was put the man out of his misery as the creature chomped down on the man's face and removed his entire head. It was a horrible ending.

What we were too busy to notice is that the impaled creature awoke as it lay on the spikes. It was never impaled by the spikes, just Quilan's spear. It regained its composure, and then hissed at us to gain our attention.

When Quilan and I looked to the creature on the spikes, it tried to grab Quilan with one of its paws. While it didn't grab Quilan, it did knock him over the side of the staircase. The creature too lost its balance on the two long spikes and fell as well!

I ran to the edge to see where both of them went! Sweaty from the heat and action, I peered over the side. Quilan hung from one of the long spikes high above the lava. Any closer to the lava and he would have probably have been cooked. Beside him though was the large reptile!

Its sharp claws were embedded firmly into the side of the staircase! The creature had its head positioned so that when Quilan fell; he would fall straight into the eagerly awaiting mouth of the creature.

I also noticed that the creature's long red tail was wrapped around the staircase. The creature was not ready to fall at all and it had secured itself a very good spot.

"Hang tight," I told Quilan, who quipped, "Is there anything else I can do that would lead to my living through this?" Beside Quilan was a thick black spike, just like the one he clung onto. It was slightly under the steps of the staircase, so I carefully went down to the spike and began to stomp it.

It was all that I could think of to help Quilan. I kept my upper body on the stairs and kept stomping down with both feet. Even with an injured leg, I ignored the pain to stomp as fiercely as I could.

Stomp after stomp, Quilan grew weaker, and if there was little chance that I could actually break through it. After all, if these spikes could hold up these creatures, it was not good I could break one off.

But the odds were in my favor, because in the thick black spike there was a crack at the base of it. Quilan screamed out to me, "What are you doing?" I continued to stomp as I yelled out, "Before I get to your problem, I need to deal with another problem!"

Finally, the spike broke off and spun on its way down toward the head of the creature. I clung onto the side of the side of the staircase and used the tiny piece of the spike that didn't break off for my feet to stand on. The spike went directly toward the creature.

The creature however merely moved its head and the thick stone spike plunged into the lava. Quilan looked down to see the stone spike go into the lava and he also noticed the dead eyes of the red reptile as they looked up toward him. "Deal with this problem, before that problem," screamed out Quilan.

Franticly, I scurried back up from the spike stub to the steps. Sweat and dirt covered my body from the stairs as I called down to Quilan, "If I save you first are you going to have an attitude?" "I'd have a grateful attitude if you save me right now," he yelled up to me.

I yelled down to him, "Hold on! I have an idea." I took a different stance, and clapped my hands above my head. Then with a swift motion I swung my left arm and pointed it down to the red creature below Quilan.

A ball of jubilant light was sent from my hand down to the head of the red reptile. As I was taught, the ability is only effective on those with simple minds. It was effective on a creature with a brain the size of a golf ball.

Jubilation stuck the mind of the long creature as if I giant stomped its face. The creature's head was thrown back and its claws tore down through the stone of the stairway. The claws tore down until they came out the bottom of the staircase.

With a bitter roar, the creature fell from the stone staircase. Not even the creature's long tail wrapped around the staircase could hold it up! As the creature fell toward the lava below it lashed its neck out toward Quilan's feet!

He narrowly curled his body and pulled his feet to avoid the deadly mouth of the creature. The creature's teeth snapped shut as it plunged into the lava below! However, the creature was not dead, just momentarily stunned.

The creature had a reptilian moan as it thrashed around in the lava. It was probably the only thing strong enough to even splash the lava around! There was molten rock thrown about everywhere, including the stone walkway and the staircase I was on.

I could hear the sounds of agony as the creature just did not die. When I peaked over the side, Quilan still clung on for his life as he looked down to see where the lava would be splashed next.

We both could see the creature climb onto the stone walkway, but as it did, the lava continued to burn away. The scales soon disappeared, and once the scales were gone, the creature's tail and hind legs disintegrated. The front legs and the head of the creature were left to slowly die on the stone walk way.

Soon everything settled enough to help Quilan who was now in more peril. At the base of the spike he clung onto was some lava that had been inadvertently thrown as the creature thrashed around. He cried out to me, "Hurry up!"

There was no safe way to get to him with a dab of lava between the two of us. With the spikes at an angle and from all of the sweat on Quilan's fingers he was slipping. Not just his grasp was slipping, but his hands were sliding down toward the dab of lava.

It was too far to reach, so I held my leg over the lava and told him to grab on. However, that wasn't the best idea, I was covered with sweat, and he was covered with sweat. There was nothing for me to grab onto in order to not slide over with him.

He grabbed onto my calf, which had to be a thrill to him. Once he had a grasp of my calf, the stone spike fell off and whirled as it fell down to the lava. With a minor plunge the stone fell in the lava. Quilan was not far behind hit as with all of the sweat, he soon fell as well!

His body went straight down, and I uttered some memorable curse at the knowledge I failed. Unwavering sadness overcame me, at the thought that no one wanted to escape with us, my parents are gone, one of our party members is now dead and the other is blind and unable to see.

I had no intension of looking down, but I heard no screams from the mouth of Quilan. Instead there was a light hum over the sound of the gently flowing lava.

When I had no help in me, I noticed the body of Quilan float by me. He had a radiant blue glow around his entire body. Quilan's body slowly drifted from over the lava and was then carelessly dropped on the stone walkway at the base of the stairs.

Quilan was so relieved he stayed on the ground and continued to hug it after the blue glow dissipated. He kept his cheek in the hot ash beneath him. After I knew he was safe, I looked further down the walkway to see the eyeless prisoner drop to the ground weak again.

As for the third creature that had eaten the villager from the cell. It was gone! So I rushed down the staircase, and slipped as I ran down. Everything was slick from sweat and saliva from the creatures. I was overjoyed to know that they were both still alive!

Meanwhile, the second creature that had fallen into the lava and crawled out still burnt away from the lava. I quickly greeted Quilan and told him, "You're alive!" He stayed close to the ground as he told me, "I'm starting to feel like the princess that has to be saved from peril."

I pointed out to him, "I'm not cut out to be a princess." "Then why do I have to be the princess?" wondered Quilan. I whispered into Quilan's ear, "Because you're far more attractive than the man with no eyes in his skull."

From a distance, we both heard, "You know my hearing is better don't you?" Quilan and I looked over to the eyeless prisoner from the ground. Quilan called out, "No! Sorry!" He then spoke up and yelled a, "Thank you," to the eyeless prisoner. The prisoner fell to his side and rolled to his back. He then uttered a quiet, "You're welcome."

I helped Quilan to his feet as he muttered, "We're going to be dead before we ever get out of here." My gaze caught the dead red creature as it was half eaten by the lava. I retorted to Quilan, "Now I can see why everyone chose to stay in their cells."

Then I ran down the walkway to the eyeless prisoner. As I helped him up, I asked, "We need to go, before they flood us with guards." The eyeless guard informed me, "I'd bet on the fact they're not going to send anymore guards down there." "What makes you think they won't?" I quickly asked.

"Because if they were going to send more guards down here, they wouldn't have released the salamandros after us," replied the eyeless guards. I could only question him, "How do you know what those were?"

As I looked down the walkway for the third red lizard, he confirmed me, "Big red lizard. Long bodies, long tails, four long legs with an extendable neck when it snaps right?" "That's them. Yes," I quickly replied while I helped him back to join Quilan.

"Those are salamandros. Their eggs are incubated in empty lava tubes. When they grow up they become fiercely territorial," said the eyeless prisoner. Quilan told him, "But that didn't answer her question. How do you know what those were?"

There was a brief pause as we started back up the stairs. Quilan then asked a question himself, "And where is the third?" He paused briefly before he added, "salamandro." "To answer your question," said the eyeless prisoner, "The third one already fed, so it will hide until he's hungry again."

Quilan told the prisoner, "You hid in someone else's cell and that person that creature fed on saved you." Before he could finish his point, the eyeless prisoner stated, "Before you finish, I'll just say that my not being dead saved you." Quilan contorted his jaw to stay quiet as he knew the prisoner was right.

"Now to answer the woman's question," said the eyeless prisoner, "I know what those things were, because I served as a soldier for Emperor Kahn." Quilan looked in disgust as the prisoner continued, "Kahn invented a guard for his prisons. He had his men collect the red hatchlings and harness them. If there was a riot, the guards would be called to a safe room."

The three of us continued up the stairs as he told us, "Once everyone was in the safe room, the salamandros were released from their cages. Well not all of the guards had to be in the safe room for the salamandros to be released." The prisoner said with a smile, "It depended on the situation, but everyone in their cells would be spared being eaten, because the red lizards couldn't get to them."

"Isn't that making one problem worse?" asked Quilan, and the eyeless prisoner then replied, "Did these have a metal harness around their front legs?" "Yes they did," I replied as I helped him climb the stairs. "They have that harness because at the push of a button, the harness temporarily stops the heart of the creature. They pass out, but don't die and the guards drag them back to their cages."

The three of us had climbed countless stairs as we continued up. The prisoner then told us, "It was deemed impractical. So the emperor stopped the practice." "It seemed cruel enough for the emperor," said Quilan. "Which is why someone is still using it," said the eyeless prisoner with a smile.

Quilan would periodically wait for the eyeless prisoner and I to catch up to him. Quilan wiped the sweat from his brow and wondered, "We're so high up from the lava, why is it so hot?" The eyeless prisoner answered him, "Steam rises and heat rises to the top."

"Can either of you see the drawbridge yet?" asked the eyeless prisoner. I could only see darkness, except for the torches that lit the way up the stairs. "What drawbridge?" I asked aloud. The prisoner then replied, "The drawbridge is why they're not going to be sending anymore guards down here."

I asked Quilan to, "Help me with him. I can't do this alone." Quilan turned to look at me as if I should leave the prisoner behind. When he blinked, he shifted his eyes away from the two of us and kept moving up the stairs. The eyeless prisoner then spoke up when he told us, "The drawbridge is why you're going to need my help getting out of here."


	7. Chapter 6: Ladies First

CHAPTER 6: LADIES FIRST

The three of us continued to trek to the height of the cavern. "Does this staircase ever end?" I wondered, with Quilan quick to reply, "After walking up and down these stairs each day, you get used to it after a while." He then looked back down to me and I pointed out, "You weren't stabbed in the leg." He told me, "That was weeks ago Li Mei!"

Quilan then continued, "You don't hear our blind friend complaining about his eyes do you?" "That's because he doesn't walk on his eyes," I quickly snipped at him.

"Where are the torches?" I wondered. Quilan then turned around to face where there were no more torches. He then told me, "There are no torches, because this is the gap for the drawbridge." With a gesture he motioned his left arm up.

"Look up there! That is the drawbridge," he said. My eyes followed his gesture and above us across a gap in the stairs was the drawbridge. We were a great distance lower than the drawbridge. Even if there was no drawbridge, it would be impossible to jump, because of the height difference.

"I have an idea," stated Quilan, "I get a spear and some rope. We tie the rope to a spear and I throw the spear into the cavern ceiling. We can then swing across one by one." The prisoner spoke up and asked him, "Have you even seen any rope around here?" Quilan snidely remarked, "No, have you?"

Quilan took a step down from the edge and asked the prisoner, "So this must be why we need you. You must know how to let down the drawbridge." "Yes I do," stated the prisoner, before he added, "It's across the gap in the entry platform when you first enter the prison."

"You know this place too well for an eyeless man," retorted Quilan who stepped right next to the prisoner. Quilan shied away from the face of the eyeless man as he asked, "Why do we need you?" He then answered his own question, "Don't tell me it's for all of your knowledge of the obvious."

"Its not," said the eyeless prisoner with a smile, "You need me to get you across that gap to the entry platform. Don't forget you also need me, because I've saved you once from death."

"I've tested your method of flight," stated Quilan, before he added, "You dropped me on my head!" "What's your point?" asked the prisoner. "My point is that it's not precise enough to put us over on a simple set of stairs without dumping us into lava!"

The eyeless prisoner agreed, "You're right, but I've got two chances to get it right." He then gestured with his head, toward Quilan, "You," then he turned his head and gestured to me as he said, "And her."

I preferred to stay out of this discussion, but Quilan let his opinion be known with a simple, "I don't think so." There was silence from us as we waited for him to elaborate, "Why can't you levitate yourself over there?" "Because I can't," replied the eyeless prisoner. Quilan then got mean and asked, "Why can't you?"

"Incase you haven't seen, I'm blind!" exclaimed the prisoner. "You're blind when you'd be sending one of the two of us over there," rebutted Quilan. At this point I just rolled my eyes as I heard the prisoner elaborate, "You both can even see the lever to release the drawbridge once you get to the other side. You two can see what you're doing incase something goes wrong."

"To top that off, I never learned how to move myself," exclaimed the eyeless prisoner with great inner pain. He then continued to elaborate, "I never mastered this ability to be precise enough to levitate. It is just a sweeping generalization with my hands. I can push a wave of energy or hold up a wave to capture anything."

"I was a repulsor for Emperor Kahn," said the eyeless prisoner to end his flurry of statements. "I thought you said that you were a soldier," said Quilan with disbelief. "I was, but that was my specific position," retorted the prisoner, and after a pause he elaborated, "If Kahn's enemies were at the walls or broke through a gate, his repulsors would fling them away with a wave of energy."

I had to abruptly end their conversation, "I'm going first instead of listening to you both." Quilan then told the eyeless prisoner, "No. I should be the one to go first." With a yell in my voice, I asked Quilan, "Must you argue over every single little detail?"

"Alright fine. Ladies first," said Quilan as he gestured to the tall drawbridge across the gap in the stairs. He then added, "Ladies go first even before princesses." The eyeless prisoner asked Quilan, "Is that what you do?"

"No, I'm a butcher," replied Quilan. The prisoner then reiterated, "So basically I kill people, you kill for people." The prisoner then turned to me and asked, "And what do you do?" "I get sick of people," I told them with a slight hostility.

I moved my body out from beneath of the eyeless prisoner. I was no longer going to be his crutch as I then added, "Now fling me across there or whatever it is that you do. Then you both can argue about killing things all you like."

The eyeless prisoner struggled to even stand. He grabbed a hold of one of the torch stems to keep his balance. With a raise of his left hand, the prisoner's head began to glow a radiant blue. The same blue overtook my body as I was lifted off of my feet into the air.

Maybe I should have had more time to think this out, because now I was in the air, facing backward to where he was going to throw me. It gave me a feeling of being very helpless.

Still surrounded by blue light, I continued to be levitated higher and higher. I tried to twist or contort my body to turn around, but it was quite useless to even try. In the corner of my eye, I could see that I neared the top of the drawbridge.

It was just within reach, and that is when the radiant blue light subsided. I had my finger tips on the thick wooden planks of the drawbridge when my body dropped. My hand was the only thing able to cling onto the bridge to keep me from falling into the lava far below.

Quilan screamed out my name and I could see the eyeless prisoner virtually pass out on the steps. The torch stem he had held onto broke from its holder and plummeted down into the unseen abyss. Meanwhile, I was left hanging by my left arm above the gap in the stairs.

With my strength I held on and swung my body around so at least my stomach was pressed up against the drawbridge. I felt self conscious with my bloody back to Quilan who screamed out, "Are you going to make it?"

I clung to the drawbridge and yelled out, "Yeah." It was half a lie. It was a lie until my feet found the metal plate that held all of the planks together. The plate was thick, so it was a good foot hold, even if my feet were sweaty; which is always a lovely thought.

But then my foot-hold from beneath of me shook and shuddered. The drawbridge began to lower, with me still on the side of it. With the drawbridge lowering, my feet dangled in the air and Quilan screamed to me, "Climb Li Mei! Climb!"

Instead I merely screamed out, "Cling Li Mei! Cling!" No one but me was amused at that thought. Without warning, the bridge suddenly stopped which jerked my body and cased me to sway high above the gap. At least I still had a grip, but with my shoulders clawed by the salamandro and still bleeding, I just didn't have the might to get myself over the bridge.

So I did the next best thing. I walked my hands slowly to get to the side of the bridge. Quilan yelled out, "What are you doing Li Mei?" My only response was, "I can't go over, and so I'm going around the bridge!" After a bit of careful moving I was to the chain of the drawbridge.

I was on the other side, so I dropped down to the platform that the drawbridge extended from. I stayed crouched down to regain my breath and the feeling in my shoulders.

Behind me the drawbridge shook once more as it was pulled back up. That gained my interest as I looked up from where I crouched. Across from me was a huge man at the lever of the drawbridge. At least I now knew where the lever was, but now I had a thick bulbous guard between me and my goal.

When I looked to the side, I could see over the lava and down to the stone walkway with all of the cells. It was the perfect vantage point that this jailor could see everything. At his side, he had huge horn, which is probably what I had heard earlier when more guards were called.

The huge jailor turned around to face me next to the light of torches. Nearly everything on his body was under heavy armor. In the lights above him, I could see everything except for his eyes in the darkened holes of his lizard skull facemask.

The only thing on his body not covered in armor was his sweaty hairy stomach which at the time was quite repulsive. Not that my filthy body wasn't all that attractive covered in blood, sweat and not bathing in two weeks.

The two of us were on a broad rocky platform, just beneath the ceiling of the cavern. The walls were lit with huge torches and there were latched doors in the walls of the cavern. Behind me was a staircase and to the left was the vast abyss. This was a lookout point to watch all of the cells below.

He challenged me forward and waved his arms to call me in. After all, he had the job of defending the lever of the drawbridge. He was also the one that tried to shake me off the drawbridge. I widened my stance and spread my arms with my left side pointed toward his bulbous body.

With a hobble, I tried to charge at him, until I leapt into the air and threw my fist at his stomach. It was obviously his only vulnerable point, but he merely sidestepped me and shaved me into the rock wall. He kept me doubled over and drove his right knee in me, then yanked me by the back of my pajamas backward to the ground.

As I looked up at him, I noticed the skulls that were used to cover his knees. I was much happier they were skulls, instead of spikes. My eyes grew wide at the sight of his right knee skull as it came down quickly at my head.

Without hesitation, I rolled out of the way and his knee crashed into the ground. I rolled to my knees and stood up just as quickly as he did. There was no standoff, instead I lunged forward to push the lever forward and release the drawbridge.

Just as my arm almost touched the wooden lever, the huge jailor grabbed my forearm and used his right foot to quickly trip my ankles out from beneath me. My knees and chin all collided with the ground of the ground. The jailor kept my forearm in his grasp and he proceeded to step on my ribs.

He continued to pull and step, as he tried to either dislocate my shoulder or just plane remove my arm. There was more pressure put on my ribs as I tried to squirm away. It was both fortunate and sad that I was covered with so much blood that his foot slipped from my rib cage. He lost his balance and I took that as my opportunity to give him a halting palm to the gut.

My right palm thrust into his belly while my left arm remained up for balance. I gave him several of them, all with my right hand and followed them up with a simple low jab to his sweaty belly button.

The huge jailor was barely phased, and without a warning he put one of his massive arms around my head. He then swiftly swept my feet out from under me with his left leg for a leg trip. My body flipped over backward and I landed on my face.

He quickly followed up with a low sweep while I was on the ground. His boot collided with my ribs, before I defended myself and stood up to my feet.

As soon as I was on my feet, he stepped forward with a right snap kick to my side. Then a left and he spun his body around and thrust his right foot straight to my stomach to complete his groundwork. Instead of reeling in pain, I was sent to the wall. He quickly followed up by flying at me with both of his boots extended forward.

I ducked out of the way and his thick boots smashed into the wall above me. His legs landed on my back and he fell over to his own back. I stood up quickly, but the bulbous jailor couldn't stand nearly as quick as I could. With the spin of my body, I lowered myself down and kicked him with the back of my heel.

My body contorted once more to throw my other leg and spun around with my leg extended into his helmet. With all of his armor, I am sure that I didn't do much, instead he merely stood up. I continued to throw my feet at his face while he knelt, but he merely kept his gauntlets in front of his head to block my attacks.

He stood up once more and tried to catch his breath. Instead, I gave him a pink dragon, which consists of two back kicks. One kicks from my left foot and the kick other from my right. Both kicks went directly into his bare stomach. The tubby jailor was sent backward reeling, but he still had not fallen over.

I stepped forward and lifted my right knee into his stomach as I punched deep down into his big gut. He stumbled backward once more in front of the overlooking edge.

Once he neared the edge, he regained his composure. Then he moved his neck back to crack it during the combat. Rejuvenated, I thrust my right palm twice into his stomach, then punched my left open fist and ended it with a hard elbow to his neck.

The jailor spun around from the impact dangerously near the edge of the platform. He was in a minor daze, but didn't fall over. Because he had yet to go over, I simply walked over to him and shoved with both of my arms.

My lack of strength was nothing compared to his intense girth. He grabbed both of my wrists with one hand, put his arm around my head with the other and then fell back with my head trapped. My body spiked into the unforgiving ground and rolled to the side on the rock edge.

I can't remember much after that. I can remember that I was on the ground for a while from having the top of my skull driven down. Without quite having the ability, I tried to stand or at least get away from the edge of the platform.

Slowly I crawled away, but that is when I heard the horn another time. That was what I needed to regain my senses. The guard towered over me, and everything was still blurry, but with a horn that big, I could tell that is what it was.

When everything became blurry, I was able to see that guards had been called in from the other chambers adjacent to the platform. It was almost a dozen of them. Perhaps it was less, because I could have been seeing double.

Once I was back on my feet, the jailor turned to me and bashed me with the large horn. He then swung his body and whacked me back to the ground with the horn. I tumbled back near the edge.

Someone then screamed, "Behead her!" I held my stomach and muttered, "That's never a good phrase." Between all of the guards, I caught a glimpse of the jailor as he pulled a giant axe from a heavy stone near the cavern wall.

After the guards parted for the jailor to step through, I noticed that the axe had a single edge to it. Not that it mattered, I was sure that would be the side of the axe they used against me.

With a foreshadowing of my own beheading, I quickly stood back on my feet only to have two guards seize me. I tried to yank my arms from their grasp, but it was quite futile. A third guard grabbed a leg of mine and called for another to, "Get the other leg." The blade of the axe was so big that it probably could have cut my torso in twain!

When a forth guard stepped forward to grab my left leg, I jammed my heel into his stomach as I kicked and screamed! The guard was sent wobbling backward.

I flailed my body and tried to jerk my arms to find a way out of the predicament. "If any princesses out there want to be the hero to save me," I uttered, and then yelled the phrase, "Come save me now!" The three guards threw me against the stone with my stomach down.

There was a horrible power of fear that a mere rock brought to me. Perhaps it was the fact that the rock was stained with blood and had several gashes from previous victims of the large axe.

My knees were on the solid grounds as three of the guards held onto me to put me there with my neck across the large gash in the stone. I kept repeating the phrase, "Save me." Over and over again it was, "Save me. Save me. Save me. Save me. Save me."

No one was going to save me and the guards pushed on my injured shoulders to keep me flat on the stone. The jailor stepped forward and raised the axe high above his head.

Unwilling to die, I lifted my right knee and used it to collide with the calf muscle of a guard's left leg. Time and time again my knee was driven into his calf as the jailor raised the axe to the height of his swing.

Another guard stepped forward to grab my leg to try and stop me, but instead I drove my heel into his most vulnerable part. The guard was sent backward into the others that watched.

Finally my right knee connected with the back of the guard's left knee. His left leg bucked and he fell backward to everyone's shock. I tugged my arm from the grasp of the guard to my left and moved my head just as the huge blade of the axe came down unto the stone. There were minor sparks and small fragments from the stone that were sent into the air.

The jailor yelled in a deep throaty voice to his men. "Grab her!" he commanded. I stood up and the jailor drew his battle axe back and to the side once more to swing it into my waist.

Guards came forward at me, while I ducked and threw my body forward to get away from the blade of the axe. One of the guards tripped and fell in the way of the axe blade when the jailor let for a fierce swing. There was a huge chop into the cavern wall. The chop had gone through the guard's neck and his helmet fell off; with the guard's head still in it.

With guards clutching my legs, I lunged forward and yanked down the lever to release the drawbridge. Outside of the immediate commotion of the guards, I could hear the sound of the chain being unwound. Followed by the large crash of the drawbridge as one end landed on the stone stairway where Quilan and the eyeless prisoner were.

The guards continued to hold onto my legs and two more joined them to hold onto my arms. Without even being brought back to the stone of beheading, the jailor lifted his axe high into the air once more.

In the corner of my eye I could see the jailor had the axe positioned at behind his head, ready for the axe to come down. I could also see behind him, Quilan, who raced toward all of us. Without hesitation, Quilan leapt and grabbed the axe head, which prevented the jailor from taking a swing.

The jailor let the axe fall to the ground as he held it with one hand. I could see the jailor turn around and take a swing at Quilan, who ducked the force of the punch. The guards that did not hold me were greatly concerned with Quilan and attacked him.

However Quilan raised back his fist and drove it straight into the stomach of the tubby jailor who was sent gasping for air. Two guards captured the arms of Quilan so he would no longer be a threat.

Suddenly from above there was the hideous sound from the mouth of the previous salamandro. The creature roared of hunger as I could see it climb across the ceiling of the chamber.

The guards were sent into utter panic over the long red creature! The two that held onto my legs let go and ran away! Meanwhile the other two were caught by surprised when the creature dropped onto the platform with the rest of us.

The salamandro quickly lashed its neck out and clamped its open mouth on the head of one of the guards that held me. The last guard that held onto me ran away as well, while the salamandro continued to eat its prey. With the prey's head removed, the salamandro snacked on the armored body of the guard.

Safe from the guards, I stood up and leapt at the two guards that held Quilan. One of them did not pay attention to me and so I decked him in the face which sent him to the ground and Quilan was able to escape the other.

I asked Quilan, "So I guess this means you saved me?" "No," he said as he took on one of the guards, "I just couldn't let you do all of the work." I sparred with another one of the guards and told him, "You are a sweetheart."

The guards were in an insane panic from the salamandro even being on the platform. Everything they did was only to get away from the red creature, even though it was still busy snacking on its prey.

As the fighting continued with Quilan and I, each against a guard, I asked him, "What about our friend?" Without any hesitation, I saw Quilan kick a guard straight off of the ledge of the platform. He looked back at me and barked, "He's milking his pain for all its worth." Unseen and unheard, the guard that Quilan had just disposed of probably hit the lava far below the platform.

The two of us heard the jailor call out with his deep voice again, "You will stay and fight! Get your spears!" The guard that I did battle with broke away from me and ran to get his spear. Quilan and I were left to stare into the black eyes of the jailor as he waited for his guards to return.

When the guards quickly returned, all four of them each had a spear in their hand. The jailor still had his giant axe, and of course Quilan and I both had nothing to combat them with.

Instead of the guards and jailor being concerned with us, they all raced to face off against the salamandro. Spears were driven into the side of the creature, which naturally seemed to anger it!

The creature whipped its tail and battered two guards with it. Meanwhile, a third guard jammed his spear into the shoulder of the salamandro only to have his head bitten off. The body of the guard dropped to his knees and the body went stomach first to the rock of the platform.

Next to die was the fourth guard who had thrown his spear at the ribs of the red lizard. The salamandro pounced at the guard. When the guard was lucky enough to avoid the attack, he jumped away from the creature. However he was not safe as the neck of the salamandro quickly lashed out. The guard's head was clamped onto with the creature's razor sharp teeth and dragged backward. It looked like no one was safe.

From out of no where, the jailor's heavy axe came crashing down and split the skull of the salamandro. The chaos ended with the swift blade of a large axe. The body of the guard in the creature's mouth still twitched from its reflexes.

Quilan and I watched in awe at the might of the jailor. Behind us came the eyeless prisoner to somewhat even the odds. There were now two guards and a jailor on the platform along with the three of us.

The eyeless prisoner spoke up and asked, "What did I miss?" "Not nearly enough," uttered Quilan as he still looked to the jailor who pried his axe from the skull of the salamandro.

Behind the jailor we could see the two guards stand once again after they were hit by the red tail of the salamandro. Both guards took their spears once again.

Our attention was then drawn to one of the wooden doors in the cavern wall then slowly creaked open. Neither the guards nor the jailor looked to see who it was. They probably knew that it was back-up for the three of them.

From out of the darkness an old foe stepped into the dim light of the torches. His hands held onto the doorway and his head leaned to the side as he told them, "You three take the men, but the girl; her heart is mine."


	8. Chapter 7: The Commander

CHAPTER 7: THE COMMANDER

"Aren't you a tall drink of water in this hot as hell place?" asked the combatant as he stepped out of the darkened doorway. The only thing that came to mind was to ask, "You again?" He then gestured with his right arm to the guards and uttered, "You see Li Mei. These are all my men. I command them."

Behind me, the guards and jailor captured Quilan and the eyeless prisoner. I could see them forced to their knees; motivated by the sharp points of the spears.

The combatant walked around me without taking a fighting stance. I however lifted my knee into the air and balanced myself with my arms above me. "You stand like a beautiful statue," he said with his uniquely accented voice, before he added, "Perhaps someday someone will make a marble statue of your tall frame."

I stood silently and watched him circle around me and ogle my body from top to bottom. He kept his left side to me, so I could only see the left side of his rugged face. Each time he passed by the guards, I could see them still with their weapons pointed at my two allies.

"How is my future wife healing from our little spat that we had weeks ago?" asked the accented voice of the man. "I'm fine and your future wife wants a divorce," I said to him with a harsh tone. He however retorted, "That's a shame to hear that," he said with a little gravely tone before he then added, "No one divorces me; they just strangely disappear and wind up at the bottom of a sewer somewhere."

"That's not far from the truth," I told him. "Marriage with you has to be like living at the bottom of a sewer," I added without a smile. He continued to circle me before he retorted, "Ah girl, our love wasn't meant to be. Perhaps our lust will prevail."

"But you need to bathe and clean up a bit first," he laughed with part of his face hidden in the shadows. He then looked to my sweaty, bloody and dirt covered body as he asked, "What the hell happened to you? I had a spectacular view the last time I laid eyes on you."

I didn't even respond to that comment, which he easily noticed. Kano drew his head closer to my body and asked with his accented voice, "What's that? No quip? You have nothing to say?"

The eyeless prisoner called out, "I know that voice!" The attention was drawn from me. My eyes glanced over to the eyeless prisoner when the commander turned his head to see who had said that.

"I assume well you do, being unable to see in your condition," said the sadistic commander as looked to the eyeless prisoner. With the eyeless prisoner on his knees, the commander drew a knife and walked over to him. The commander looked down to the eyeless prisoner and stated the prisoner's name, "Rhen Yun Zhang we meet again." Quilan and the eyeless prisoner Zhang faced up to Kano.

Zhang called up to the commander, "The last time we met, you took my eyes with your knives." The eyeless prisoner had two scars across his face where his eyes once were. "I remember that I told you Kano that when we next met, that I would stab out that red light of yours that you call an eye."

To keep Kano's attention, Zhang uttered, "The only thing that keeps me alive is that I hope to steal your eye." Kano retorted to Zhang, "You shame me Zhang. The only thing that keeps you alive is my will."

With Kano focused on my two allies, he stated, "The only thing that keeps me from telling these guards to kill you is the fact that you will be made an example of." Zhang uttered, "You said that when you took my eyes."

"Consider yourself lucky Zhang. My knives were meant for your brain, not just your eyes," Kano said as a joke. The guards were the only ones to get a smile out of it.

"I will demonstrate to the population of this dungeon what happens when you try to escape," said Kano, before he told my allies, "Your deaths will be slow." Quilan finally spoke up to say, "Your death will be swift!" There was uproar of laughter from Kano and the guards, and I almost laughed as well. Zhang calmly whispered to Quilan, "Quiet kid, you don't know who you're messing with."

Kano lowered his head to face Quilan and asked, "Who the hell are you?" "Quilan," he uttered only to hear a bigger uproar of laughter. Kano then screamed down to him, "You have no name slave!" Kano followed up his statement with a kick to Quilan's chest that sent Quilan tumbling backward.

Kano pointed to Zhang and exclaimed, "He is an old comrade when we both worked for Emperor Kahn." Quilan propped himself back up and asked, "Yeah? What about her?" Kano looked to me, before he looked back down to Quilan and responded, "There are bigger plans for her." As he then pointed the blade of his knife down to Quilan he exclaimed, "You however are a slave and that is all this life will ever hold for you!"

Quilan opened his mouth to rebut, however Kano yelled down to him, "Do not dare open your mouth again, because if you were anything more than a slave; Now is your chance to prove it!"

Actually that was my chance; I tried to quietly approach Kano while everyone looked to Zhang and Quilan. However Kano turned to me and pointed one of his knives at me and uttered, "Step closer and I stab through your other leg." I currently had the bandaged leg in the air with my stance so I withdrew a bit away from the sadistic commander.

After I had withdrawn, a surge of bravery overcame me. I told Kano, "I can beat you." He gave me a strange look and asked with his accented voice, "Oh really do you now?" "I can beat you," I told him again. Kano took the metal tip of his knife and clanked it on the metal plate on his head as he asks, "What makes you think that you a bruised, broken, bloodied woman can defeat me, a dual knife wielding maniac with a laser for an eye?"

"Now you've given me more motivation to defeat you," I told him, before I continued, "Before it was just to escape here and liberate my people." "And now what is it?" asked Kano. "You just made it sound now like I couldn't beat you because I'm a woman," I said with a stern voice, before I added, "For that I'll kick your ass all over this dungeon."

Kano then uttered to me, "I didn't mean it like that love, but now that you've brought it to my attention; there's no way you're winning little girl." He then turned his head to the guards and jailor as he asked, "Right men?" When he looked to me, he then added, "Look at you. You haven't even recovered from the last time that we fought."

I uttered the phrase, "Just fight." With that said I made the first attack! I threw my body forward with my right arm extended. My fist ended up in his stomach and he was sent back a bit, before he retaliated with a frontal kick, a side toe kick and a circling motion with the knife in his hand. The only attack he missed me with was the huge knife swipe that ended his destroyer fury!

When I shied away from his attacks with one of his butterfly knives, he drew back his right arm and sent the blade whirling toward me! My body slinked down to avoid the knife and it probably ended up stuck in the cavern wall behind me!

He followed up quickly by moving his head forward and sent a searing blast of laser from his mechanical red eye! It was quite an amazing flurry of attacks, but I was smart enough to avoid the more deadly of the attacks. I kept my body ducked low and swung my left foot into his body. It wasn't much, but it did distract him.

The laser of his red eye shut off and we continued our combat. Meanwhile, Quilan and Zhang remained at the mercy of the guards and jailor. The guards had their spears pointed at the necks of my allies.

As for me, I was getting knocked around by Kano. He threw me to the cavern wall, next to one of the torches. I tried to dislodge one of the torches to defend myself with it. Kano continued his onslaught of kicks and punches. I was too busy defending myself to pick up the torch.

When he raised his foot for one last high kick at my head, I ducked and connected with a high kick of my own that nailed him into the air! His body spun around end over end. On his way down, I connected with a circling hand strike to the back of his head that sent his half robotic face to the hard ground.

I held onto one of the torches and then used my foot to kick out the base of the torch. The base snapped and I now had a torch in my hands. However Kano drew his second knife from his left boot.

Kano lunged forward with a huge swipe with his knife. The twisting knife motion cut right through the stem of my torch. As his arm was in the air with the knife, I kicked my foot forward, turned the head of the torch and jammed the flame into Kano's chest.

He screamed as I pressed it to his hairy chest, but he soon knocked the torch away from me with his gloved hand. The torch ended up somewhere near the center of the platform.

The laser eye turned on once more as a red beam of light was focused in my direction. I cringed to avoid the burning red beam, and did a summersault to avoid it. The beam however followed me as it left a smoking trail in the wall of the cavern.

Kano was careful to avoid his own men as he followed me with the laser of his eye. I took a lower and more agile stance to avoid the laser instead of my usual fighting stance.

He never bothered to pay attention that I came closer and closer to his body. With the twist of my body, I extended my leg and swept his legs out from under him. He landed hard on the dark ground of the cavern platform.

His red laser was only off for a brief second when I knocked him down. He then focused it at me and shot the beam up into my shoulder. My flesh was seared shut without even bleeding. Fortunately I was not cut in half, instead Kano shut off the laser.

Perhaps he had a heart to stop the laser, but no, he just spun his body and extended his arm with the knife to make an attempt to cut through my shins. I leapt over the blade, but his entire body spun around and when I landed, he had his leg extended. His legs collided with my injured legs and I fell to my back. It was not exactly a clean sweep, more like he hit me and I was so injured that I fell from the impact.

Kano scurried to get on top of me. He mounted my stomach and tried to drive his knife into my heart. He pressed down, while I continued to hold his forearms to spare my life.

With an accent, Kano uttered, "You should have given me your heart love." We struggled with the knife; I tried to dig my nails into his wrists. He then added, "Now I have to take your heart."

To really put the pressure on, Kano pressed his body into the handle of the knife. If I wasn't as tall as I am, I would have had no chances. Speaking of chances; that is about the time I had to take a chance to save myself. I reached up with my right hand. With my nails I gripped the left side of his head and jammed my thumbnail into his real eye!

He screamed, but I continued to drive the thumbnail into his eye until he was forced to dismount me. His body clamored from mine as I kept my thumb in gouged into his eye. When he was off of me, I removed my thumb from his eye and gave him a stiff kick to the head which sent his thick knife blade out of his hand.

As payback, Kano's body lunged forward and shoved his left palm into my stomach! He followed it with a power strike that connected under my jaw. I don't remember flying through the air, but I do remember hitting the ground on my stomach.

"Stay down babe," I was told from the accented Kano. I personally did not want to move. At that point I wanted to wake up in my bed without dead Tarkatans in my room. When I began to stir from my daze, Kano told me "The master will be down here very soon."

When I pushed my body off of the ground and got myself to a kneeling position, Kano gave me a head butt with the right side of his head. That happens to be the side of his head with the metal plate exposed. My body was knocked down again, and I heard the fuzzy words from Kano's mouth, "Come on babe, I'm not even trying!"

In hindsight, he had to be trying. After all he did use lasers and knives. Although now that I think about it; those two things alone should have killed me instantly with no chance of survival.

With little time to think, Kano kicked me in the stomach, which took the breath out of me. Still in a daze, I felt the pain once more of a second kick to the stomach. My body was curled in a ball.

When the third kick came to my stomach, I grabbed his foot. I refused to leg go, and I began to knee his leg with my left knee. I continued to grasp his leg until he tried to escape my clutches. Kano fell backward.

I released his leg and slowly stood up as I held my stomach. Meanwhile, Kano was quick to stand up once more. We briefly fought once more and I gained the upper hand when I gave him a back kick to his stomach. He reeled back slightly and clutched his stomach as I had clutched mine not too long before.

Then I followed put the kick with a flurry of several punches as I leapt into the air at him. Punch after punch connected with his vulnerable bare chest, instead of the metal plate on his face. When I landed, Kano twisted his body and extended his leg to sweep me.

Fortunately I avoided that attack, but when he stood up, he grabbed a hold of me. He buckled my legs out from under me and threw my upper half forward. I landed on my back and stayed there for a brief moment.

That is when I saw the huge jailor and his battle axe above me! I rolled out of the way and the huge axe crashed into the rock platform! When I returned to my feet, I gave the jailor two of my hardest punches straight into his gut. Those punches were to punish him for joining this fray between Kano and I.

Then Kano appeared beside me and tried to throw me once more. With a bit of might, I stiffly punched his neck. He let out a gasp of air, before I jammed the heel of my foot into his stomach and propelled him into the jailor.

The two of them stumbled backward and now was my chance to pick up the battle axe. I gripped the thick and heavy handle with both of my hands to pull it from the rock. I quickly discovered there was no chance I would be able to lift an axe that probably weighed more than me!

Behind me, unseen, Kano had picked up one of his knives from the ground. When I realized I would not be able to lift the axe, I turned around to see Kano with the knife! He quickly took two lunges at me. The first knife swipe missed, the second follow up missed as well.

I took the brief opportunity to shove him away with the palm of my hands. Kano stumbled backward into the wall of the cavern. Meanwhile, I heard the big grunt of the jailor who swung his giant axe in my direction! The axe was meant to cut me in half at the waist. Instead I lowered my body until the palms of my hands touched the rock of the ground beneath of us.

When I stood up, I gave him two powerful back kicks to his stomach. The jailor lost his balance, so I saw that as my chance to knock him out. I decked him right in the facemask with the hope that I would break through it. I shook my hand from the pain of punching the reptilian bone that made up his facemask.

Kano approached me from behind, so I gave him a back kick. With the jailor still in front of me reeling, he received a swinging right elbow from me. Kano took another back kick from my left foot, and the jailor received a second right elbow into his gut.

After that, Kano grew intolerant of the abuse I dished out to both of them. He grabbed an arm of mine, spun me around, took the other arm and flipped me. His body rolled to his back and he used his feet to throw me above him to the ground.

The phrase, "I have seen enough," could be heard in the background as Kano and I both stood up. Kano became distracted and looked to where the voice had come from. My vision followed to where Kano's face was directed.

There stood a brazen man with white skin and red tattoos that had been seared into his skin! His body was covered from head to toe in a dark blue armor. Around his collar and chest were finned blades that extended from his armor. Over his heart he wore an amulet that dazzled with green in the center of it.


	9. Chapter 8: Quan Chi

CHAPTER 8: THE BARGAIN

"Who are you?" I asked the man with pale skin. Kano interjected and began to state, "He's the." "No," uttered the man with white skin, before he added, "I shall inform her myself."

The white skinned man told me, "I am Quan Chi. Co ruler of this realm called Outworld." "That is not possible," I laughed to him, "Shao Kahn is and has always been emperor of Outworld. He will have your head if you even jest that you are the emperor."

"Jest? I assure you Li Mei that I do not jest when it comes to power," said Quan Chi, before he added, "In fact it was an interesting choice of words that you have just used." "Why is that?" I asked him. Kano even had a smirk on his face as Quan Chi replied, "Because we have overthrown the previous regime and my partner and I now rule this cold realm!"

Kano called out to me, "Its true love." I had other thoughts in my head as I asked, "Co ruler?" "Yes, I have made an alliance with Shang Tsung," stated Quan Chi and with a brief smirk, he added, "For now." "There is that name again!" I exclaimed, before I added, "Tell me who he is!"

"He's the boss! Pays me in koins," called out Kano. Quan Chi was amused at that comment, before he elaborated to me, "Shang Tsung has been around forever seemingly. He is ageless, and powerful. He is also someone worthy of my time and eternity of expertise." I took notice that there was something darkly seductive about Quan Chi's voice, almost hypnotizing and soothing.

I spoke up to tell the two of them, "Yeah, but that doesn't quite tell me who he is." From afar, I heard Zhang call out, "Some say he's an undefeatable demon!" Everyone looked to Zhang as he continued, "In his human form he is one of the greatest sorcerers. In my opinion, he is only a sorcerer, because as a demon he commands the element of fire."

From behind Zhang, one of the guards clubbed him down with the butt of a spear. Quan Chi called out, "No!" Then he looked intently to Zhang and told the guard, "Let him continue." "I've seen him incinerate guards with his magic," stated Zhang as he tried to push himself up from the floor. He then added, "He was a powerful ally to the emperor."

"Yes," agreed Quan Chi, before he elaborated, "which is how he and I were able to get close enough to murder the emperor." I called out to Quan Chi, "The emperor is someone that all of my people know. He does not just rule a country, he rules our entire world! He is a man that uses his might and towering muscle to crush everyone before him!"

"Magic can conquer even the mightiest of warrior!" exclaimed Quan Chi with a yell so fierce drool and spit came from his mouth. Kano told Quan Chi, "Hey, settle down there." Then Kano looked to me and added, "Hey babe, you gush about the emperor like you had a crush on him."

"It is no crush, it is sheer hatred!" I exclaimed, "The emperor saw to it that." I then composed myself and told them all to, "Never mind." There was my opportunity with them engaged in what I had to say. I took on a different stance, clashed my wrists together and pulled them apart to send a jubilant ball of light toward Quan Chi.

I cried out, "Magic can conquer even the mightiest warrior!" After I screamed that, Quan Chi literally caught the ball of jubilant light with his right hand. He held it in his hand and looked at it for a brief moment. He then turned his head and asked me, "A parlor trick for those of simple mind."

It was true, but he then put his hands together and quickly spun around. He then forced his arms straight with his palms open. A glowing green orb of eerie light formed and flew toward me! The orb of light them took on the shape of a ghastly green skull larger than my body!

The skull was hideous and hung with its mouth open and its eyes were dead and hollow! I crouched down as I cringed as it flew by me without any hesitation.

When I stood up, I was met by Quan Chi's laughter. He spoke up and told me, "My magic is not a parlor trick!" I then noticed that when I had cringed to evade the glowing green skull, that I was now directly by the edge of the platform. Any further and I would fall off and probably plunge into the lava.

Quan Chi then asked, "Now tell me Kano why I am down here." Kano spoke up and said, "Boss you didn't need to come down here. We had everything under control." Quan Chi approached me and looked down to one of the dead guards strewn about across the platform. "I see," said the white faced Quan Chi.

"No Kano. Tell me the correct answer of why I am down here," stated Quan Chi. "You're down here, because of the girl," said Kano. I however exclaimed, "I have a name you know!" "Which is?" asked Quan Chi.

"Li Mei," called out Kano only to hear Quan Chi say, "Thank you Kano." "Is that your name Li Mei?" asked the white skinned Quan Chi as he came even closer.

"Yes," I told him, and he was quick to ask, "And did you cause this mayhem that I see all over? Guards severed in half, beheaded and to top it off a salamandro dead!" I simply told him, "And two more dead salamandros." "You impress me," stated Quan Chi, before he added, "You have always impressed me."

"When Kano invaded the village, you were the only one to kill any of the invasion party," stated Quan Chi. "They killed themselves," I told him. "Now I can hardly believe that; after seeing the chaos that you seem to cause." "She would cause less chaos in my heart if she stopped gushing about the emperor," uttered Kano in the distance.

"Former emperor," stated Quan Chi, before he told Kano, "Now shut up." Quan Chi then asked me, "Now tell me how you did it!" "I merely dodge, counter and evade," I told him in a quick voice. I then added, "I only defend myself and when they've died it has been by accident. No one should die, they should merely accept loss."

Quan Chi laughed a bit, and arched his eyebrows as he asked me, "Accept loss?" Quan Chi kept his body close to me and gestured with his arm. I doubt that the beheadings of all of these guards could have been by accident. I restrained my hatred and softly said, "Your sweaty jailor over there is axe happy. If you want to know why so many have died, ask him."

He then told me, "I have seen you in action just now against Kano, and I am honestly impressed that you are not dead!" I kept my head down away from Quan Chi's gaze as I told him, "Do not be impressed. If Kano wanted me dead, he would have just used his laser eye to cut me in half."

"Li Mei, I am your friend," said Quan Chi, before he elaborated, "I am going to get you out of here!" I continued to not look at him, as I asked, "Why would you do that?" With a laugh, he answered, "Because I can!" He then deepened his voice and told me, "And you're going to join me."

I had to ask him, "Why would I do that?" "Why do you ask questions?" asked Quan Chi, before he elaborated, "I need you in my undefeatable army." Quilan spoke up and yelled a flippant remark, "We defeated so many guards tonight!"

Quilan was punished as he was hit with the blunt end of a guard's spear. Quan Chi ordered his guards to, "Kill him." I saw the guards raise their spears until I cried out, "No stop!" Quan Chi asked me, "Why would I stop?"

The guards held the points of their spears to Quilan's neck as I uttered "Because we accept loss." Quan Chi uttered with a dark tone of voice, "There is more to battle that simply admitting loss Li Mei."

"There is death!" He barked at me and captured my gaze. I was intensely frightened, and whispered slightly, "Without the acceptance of loss I could not join your undefeatable army. I would be dead."

"That is not entirely true," uttered Quan Chi, "I only need your soul to implant it into a warrior made of stone!" I exclaimed, "What?" "Ah you simple village girls know nothing about a sorcerer's magic," uttered Quan Chi while he gestured with his arm. "Your soul becomes ours to channel into a warrior. You will become ours to command, lifeless without my spells to keep you moving," uttered Quan Chi.

I retorted with a whisper, "That is impossible." We then heard Zhang call out, "No it's not impossible!" I dared not to look away from the floor that I had my focus on. "Shang Tsung has the power to channel souls from one body to another!" exclaimed Zhang, before he elaborated, "He can even absorb them to increase his own power."

Zhang called out once again, "You cannot let him take your soul!" Quan chi yelled back, "She does not have a choice!" He then looked at me as he said, "I could merely kill her and transfer her soul into a warrior of stone."

"No!" screamed out Zhang. "There are no nos in this deal," uttered Quan Chi with a flamboyant expression, before he stated, "I will have your soul for the undefeatable army one way or another." I was puzzled at the entire situation, but I heard Zhang call out once more, "Tell him that you."

There was hesitation from Zhang's voice. "Tell him what?" asked Quan Chi. "If you want to keep your soul, tell him that you will jump off into the lava below!" yelled Zhang.

Quan Chi and I turned our heads to Zhang and simultaneously asked, "What?" "Do it! Tell him you will jump off of here!" called out Zhang. Quan Chi and I both continued to look at Zhang in silence. "If you are in the lava, he cannot get your soul. Now tell him!"

I hesitantly told Quan Chi, "You can't have my soul." "Do not just say it, threaten him!" screamed out Zhang in the distance. I then uttered to Quan Chi, "If you want my soul, you are going to have to fish it out of that lava bath down there!"

"You cannot threaten me with suicide!" exclaimed Quan Chi in disbelief. We both knew that I was next to the edge of the rock platform as I told him, "I am right here. If you try anything I will fall."

"Go ahead. If you kill yourself, these two are dead!" exclaimed Quan Chi as he looked to Quilan and Zhang on their knees. "I say we torture them instead of killing them!" called out Kano with sadistic laughter from behind Quan Chi.

"A good idea!" said Quan Chi with a wide eyed grin! "See Li Mei! This is why you cannot threaten me with suicide!" exclaimed Quan Chi. I kept my gaze away from him still as I stated, "If you wanted me dead, you would have shoved me off yourself."

Quan Chi tried to dislodge his jaw as he fathomed the fact that I knew. He turned away from me for a brief moment to continue to digest the fact. However, he suddenly turned around and sprung forth his hands!

I briefly lost my balance and clung to one of the torches at the edge of the platform. With laughter, Quan Chi told me, "If I wanted to shove you off, I would have." He then added, "I would not have just startled you to hope that you fell off."

He looked smug as he told me, "I have an idea though. It is an idea that will get us away from this stalemate. After all, you can stay here and threaten to throw yourself off and I can stare at you all night." With the gesture of his left arm, he put it up and stated, "Yes I know Kano; you could too."

"It would help if she put something that left more to the imagination," yelled Kano in response to that. I finally looked Quan Chi in his white face as I asked, "What is your idea?"

"Do you really want to save your soul so badly that you would kill yourself and forget about your entire village?" asked Quan Chi. I pulled myself up from the torch stem and did not hesitate to tell him, "To spare my soul from you I would."

Quan Chi told me with a smirk, "There is one way you could save your soul." "How is that?" I wondered. He then shrugged off his idea and told me, "Forget that I asked." Naturally that provoked my curiosity, so I told him, "No tell me."

There was a sly look on his face once again as he told me, "No, on second thought I should have the guards snatch you. I will take your soul and Kano can take your body."

Zhang called out, "What about Mortal Kombat?" I asked, but Quan Chi was too caught up in his previous thought to answer. "Mortal Kombat?" wondered Quan Chi, before he added, "She just said that she could not kill. She would hardly be any competition for me in Mortal Kombat." I shyly asked, "What is Mortal Kombat?" "The tournament of life," called out Zhang.

Quan Chi bat down the idea and said, "Do not fill the young girl's head with grandeur!" he then faced me and told me, "It is a tournament where you are going to get killed." "But it can protect her soul," said Zhang in the distance.

As he cupped his hand to his ear, Quan Chi asked Zhang, "What? Protect her soul?" Quan Chi then told me, "It will hand deliver your soul to me when you lose."

"To you?" I asked as I recoil my head, "Are you in the tournament?" "As emperor of this world, I am indeed in Mortal Kombat," he said with a bit of charm in his voice. He then added, "My commander Kano is in the tournament as well."

"What of Shang Tsung?" I asked, and Quan Chi was quick to hiss, "He is in the tournament of course. As a co emperor, he must to keep up with my half of the empire." He raised his brow with a bit of arrogance as he elaborated, "Everyone that survives the first round of the tournament will undoubtedly complete against us." Another smirk came over his face as he finished, "And loose!" After that his voice echoed with laughter.

Zhang called out once more, "If you want her soul, you will have to fetch it in honorable combat!" "Fine!" barked Quan Chi, "This fresh face will be picked off as easy prey!"

I said nothing in my own defense. However, Zhang yelled out, "You are right sorcerer!" There was a brief pause, before he continued, "In this dungeon she cannot train! She will remain weak, assuming that your guards do not kill us right now."

Quan Chi smiled at the thought, "I do have that power." "Yes, but you have the power to release her, to train or at least heal!" yelled Zhang from the distance. "Now why would I do that when I can just snatch her and steal her soul?" wondered Quan Chi aloud.

There was hesitation for an answer, so I told him with a hushed voice, "Because you cannot kill me here." "Excuse me?" wondered the white faced sorcerer. "She's right," yelled Zhang, "If you snatch her here, there will be no glory in your victory. At the tournament there will be eyes upon you and glory in your victory."

I uttered, "If you wanted me dead, you would have killed me." My statement received a brief glance from the charismatic sorcerer, and I elaborated, "If you wanted my soul, I have been here two weeks. That was plenty of time to take it."

"Would you be willing to put up your soul as collateral to participate in Mortal Kombat?" asked Quan Chi. "To free my people I would kill every man in your so called empire," I said with a stern voice as I looked into his cold dead eyes. "With Shang Tsung and I in the tournament, you have your opportunity," said Quan Chi, "But because we are in it, you have less of a chance to win. In fact that chance is lowered to zero."

"This is madness! We need to kill her here and now!" yelled Kano at the thought that I would be in the tournament. Quan Chi merely raised his left arm to the commander and said, "Silence Kano!"

Quan Chi then put his attention back on me, as he told me, "If you fail, your people will remain our slaves forever until they all die." I then screamed my response, "You have a deal sorcerer!"

He then stepped aside and gestured that I walk past him. Kano then wondered, "She kills eight guards and you let her pass?" Quan Chi did not look at Kano as he answered, "I let her pass, because I am smarter than you, and because I am in charge."

I merely stood there, until Quan Chi uttered, "And if she does not return to compete in Mortal Kombat, I will see to it that Kano removes more than their eyes." After that, I continued to stand next to the edge, until Quan Chi grabbed my arm and pulled me away.

He yelled at me to, "Go; before I change my mind!" I remained hesitant until Zhang told me, "Seek out General Reiko! He can restore order even if he is loyal to Emperor Kahn." Quan Chi then told his guards, "If he speaks again kill him."

When I gave the sorcerer a dirty look, he then elaborated, "You would at least be able to save one of your allies from the exquisite tortures if I kill the other." On that note, I started to slowly walk backward as I made my way to the door. Everyone kept their eyes on me, and in Kano's case he kept his one eye on me.

Just as I left the platform through the door, I saw Quilan drop his head in disgust at my abandoning them.

Once I was through the doorway I found myself in a dark hallway with a staircase at the end. There was a light at the top of the staircase. That is the point that I heard the footsteps of someone from behind. When I looked behind me it was Kano!

He ran toward me, so I took off down the dark hallway toward the steps. Once I was at the end of the hallway, I started to go up the steps to get away from Kano.

Commander Kano however had run too fast, and once he got to the steps, he tripped on the first step. He grabbed my leg as I continued to climb the stairs and yelled for me to "Wait!"

I shook my leg from his clingy grasp and continued up the stone steps with him crawling up behind me! We both virtually climbed the staircase to quicken our pace to get to the top.

When I reached the top, I found myself with three choices of where to go. Three hallways, that each led in a different direction. I chose a hall and quickly want down it.

At the end of the hall was a bright light, and just as I reached the end there were a pair of guards that walked by. I held my breath and hid in the shadows to go unnoticed from the two armored guards.

My silence was disturbed, when Kano grabbed me from the shadows and I let out a scream! He tried to cover my mouth with his sweaty hands as he told me to "Just wait a second." I escaped from his clutches and ran the opposite way the guards had gone!

The hallway opened up into a grand chamber! I was on the second floor that overlooked a massive hall. The railing was created to look like a thick serpent's body. It was carved entirely in gold and detailed with scales.

In the center of the grand chamber was the most eye-catching thing I have ever seen in my life. There was a ghastly pillar made of a green energy. The energy swirled and moaned. As I looked closer, it was as if the green pillar of energy had thousands of faces that were howling.

A green ball of energy flew by my body and my eyes followed it as the energy was drawn straight into the pillar. I could see that there were dozens of haunting green balls of energy that were drawn into the center pillar.

My awe of this grand chamber felt like minutes, but it was only a brief few seconds as from behind me, I heard the heavy footsteps of Kano! I turned to the right and ran along the walkway that overlooked the floor.

When I came to a set of long stairs that curved down to the first floor, I pushed off with one foot and leapt into the air. I landed halfway down the long set of stairs, when I did, my leg buckled and I tumbled down the rest of the steps.

Once I found myself at the bottom of the staircase, I looked up to the top of the steps to see Kano leap off of them as well. However, he wasn't injured, so he leapt right down to me on the floor.

I gave him a kick to the head from my downed position. When I stood up to run away, he quickly grabbed my black hair and yanked me back down. I landed flat on my back and yet again had the wind knocked out of me. If the floor were not made of marble, my head may have dented it from the force of my head bashing into it.

Clutching the roots of my hair, Kano walked around me and gestured to the green pillar of energy at the center of the grand chamber. He told me, "I caught you looking at this magnificent soulnado." I didn't much care with the pain in my scalp, but he continued, "It's a thing of sheer beauty."

"That thing over there is how Shang Tsung will keep his youth eternally, and his unstoppable power!" exclaimed Kano, before he reached down to my injured leg.

I tried to kick him away with my other foot, but instead Kano kicked my injured thigh with his thick boot as he exclaimed, "Don't think I won't kick a man while he's down." He grabbed my heel and wrapped his gloved hands around it, before he continued, "Or a woman either."

Kano began to drag me along the floor. However, I was so hot and sticky that he had to take a different position to pull me. My body clung to the floor, as Kano pointed out, "That man downstairs with the white skin is the one that's saving your life!"

As he continued to drag me along the floor away from the green soulnado, Kano told me, "Quan Chi sent me to escort you out of this palace so the guards don't kill you."

My body left a long smear of dirt, blood and sweat as he dragged me along the floor. "If I disobeyed Quan Chi, he'd kill me, but if I had my way, you'd be dead by now. Things are going to change in the tournament, I'll tell you that."

I was dragged through two giant doors as Kano continued to ramble. He had pulled me so quickly and so far, that I was out of the palace itself!

When Kano came to a double gate, he merely kicked the narrow crack between the two gates. The kick was so fierce that the heavy metal gates swung open part of the way.

He tried to drag me a bit further, but I was in a better condition to struggle against him. So instead Kano reached down, grabbed my arm and helped me to my feet.

We were at the top of a dark set of stairs that sprawled out to a magnificent courtyard. The sun was dawning over the horizon and everything took on a shade of bright orange.

Kano told me, "Here you are, safe and sound doll." He then took me in a powerful embrace with one arm around my waist and his other arm around my back. He gave me the foulest kiss I can remember as I tried to push him away.

It went so far that he even bent me over backward, before returning me to my feet. He then said, "Thanks for the great night. Now hit the bricks kid."

He then shoved me with his boot down the stone steps to the bottom. It was perhaps the rudest moment of my life. My elbows were bleeding, my back was covered in blood, and most of my body was black and blue.

I propped myself up off of the stone courtyard one last time to look at him as he closed the gates. In the shadows I could see his single red eye as he looked down upon me from atop the stairs.

Above him towered the green soulnado. It was endless, extending out of the top of Shang Tsung's palace into the sky! It was a powerful sight to see to end my incredible escape.


	10. Chapter 9: The Start of a Long Road

CHAPTER 9: THE START OF A LONG ROAD

I gently woke up with the sun high overhead. My face looked upon its shining glory, and I remembered the dream that I had the previous night. Then when I looked away from the sun that hung overhead, I noticed something else.

It was a tall pillar of energy in the sky. When I realized that it was the green soulnado, I think my exact words were, "I'm still stuck in this dream."

"You're not dreaming," said a man's voice. When I looked over to who said that, there was an old miser that told me, "Get off this property and run before you are caught." "Who are you?" I asked the old man. He responded with the same question, "No. Who are you young woman?"

He continued to water the exotic flowers at the edge of the courtyard when he told me, "Where did you come from anyway?" He paused, before he added, "You don't look like a slave. You don't look like a guard."

I stood up in the center of the courtyard and the center of my own pool of blood. The miser then commented, "Rough night with the master?" With slight hesitation, I asked him again, "Who are you?"

"Can't you tell?" he asked me, "I'm the gardener." He then swished the water around in his watering bucket. I knew where I was, but I still asked, "Where am I?"

"You're on the front steps of the great palace of the mighty emperor Tsung," said the old man, who then continued, "You best run before guards on duty find you. They've been known to kill on sight."

I turned around and stared up the staircase to the huge metal gate that I had been thrown out of last night as I told the old miser, "I was just thrown out of the dungeon." "Thrown out of a dungeon? You take that as great luck, run away from here and don't look back."

In the sky souls were being pulled toward the green tower of energy and light as I asked the miser, "So why don't you run?" "Because I'm a slave, too old to run," he muttered as he continued to water the plants. "Too old to do manual labor," he added as he turned back to me. He then muttered, "Happy I am too old to help build that fortress like the others."

"What do you know about the fortress?" I asked him, but he only told me, "I just water plants. I keep them growing, other slaves keep the fortress growing."

When I looked around the courtyard, the old miser noticed, and told me, "If you looking for the fortress, it's nearby, but not as noticeable as this grand monument." The miser then gestured with his wrinkled arm at the tower of green energy that went to the bright sky.

"Don't go there, that's where half the guards go every morning until sunset," said the miser. "Slaves get lead out the back of the palace and down the road," he continued.

"Where is this road?" I asked him. "You don't want that road," he replied, "You'll only find despair from the slaves and death from the guards. Pretty thing like you should go to a town, make some koins with your." I had to interrupt him, "Please don't finish that sentence."

"Where is the nearest town?" I wondered, and the old man, looked to me with a slight smile behind his beard. He then gestured toward beyond the courtyard. "Down that way, but you'll find no help there; all towns around here occupied by emperor Tsung."

"My village is one of them," I commented, but he harshly stated, "I didn't ask for your life story girl." The miser then gestured again with his watering can to beyond the courtyard as he said, "That is the way out through there."

There were still green souls being pulled through the sky toward the swirling green soulnado as the miser went back to watering the flowers, just before he asked, "So why you go there? Are you looking to find another client or something?" I chose not to dignify him with a response; instead I looked toward the exit of the courtyard.

The miser asked, "This old man told you that in jest, you're probably going to find your parents or something." "My parents were taken by the previous regime a long time ago," I uttered to the old man.

"There you go again, telling me your life story when I didn't ask," said the old miser, before he wondered, "I only ask you what you want with a town."

My only reply was that, "I search for someone that can help." "Help you do what? Tell this old man," he insisted that I tell him. "Help me defeat the emperors and free my people," I answered as I walked over the black stone courtyard toward an exit through a pagoda.

"Defeat the undefeatable? There are two emperors now, twice as bad as worst one we just had. Good luck with that pretty girl," said the old miser, before he began to laugh with a shrill voice.

"Are you sure you won't come with me?" I asked him. "I can't leave, I'm a slave," he answered, before he added, "Everyone see this old man with young pretty girl, they think I'm some rich man and you're my trophy wife."

With that said he let out a long winded cough as he tried to laugh from his joke. As I walked toward the pagoda, the old miser called out, "Goodbye girl. I see you later when the guards of emperor Tsung catch up to you!"

I passed under the pagoda and followed a road for hours. Past abandon towns and villages. Over rivers, and through baron lands, I went, until finally I came to a small town at the edge of the region.

There was a towering gate with thick wooden doors and tall walls of stone that surrounded it. When I approached the gate, I heard a voice call out, "Go back the way you came!"

"I can't!" I called out, "There is nothing left back there!" The voice called out again, "We can't help you!" I screamed at the towering door, "I do not ask for your help! I search for someone!"

Above the door was the sun, blinding me as it set over the town. "Lies!" screamed the voice, before it added, "You herald an invasion force!"

When I turned around, there was nothing but the dirt path that I had followed to get here. After that, I looked to the towering gate once again and shielded my eyes from the blinding sun. "I bring no one with me! There is no invasion force, I seek aide from someone!"

"You won't find aide here! Be on your way!" yelled the voice, but I grew tired of discussing something with a person whose face I could not see.

Without a warning, I dashed toward the stone wall of the city. The wall was made of thick, huge and grey stones, but the wall was not tall enough that I could not climb over. I quickly scaled the wall to the top and rolled over it into the town.

When I rolled over the wall, I fell to the other side and landed in the dirt face down. I inhaled a bit of dirt and coughed it out with a breath of dust.

"You there! Why have you come to this town?" asked a man whose feet I could see next to me. I propped my body up and asked, "Do you not pay attention when a woman speaks?" I could not see the man, because the sun set behind him. His body looked like a shadow with light behind it.

"I come seeking the general," I told the man. He then gestured behind him, toward the town itself. "You'll find no general or soldiers here," he told me, before he added "We what is left of our citizens that have not fallen to emperor Tsung"

From behind the man stepped dozens of other citizens, men, women and children. One of them called out, "She tries to open our gates; To let the armies in!" I was still blinded by the light of the setting sun when I uttered, "Do I look like I'm in any condition to take over your town?"

"They send in one with such a seductive shape to trap us in her vixen spell and we let down her guard," uttered a voice in the crowd. That is when I heard another scream, "Kill her!" After hearing that, the shadowy figures of the mop raised pitch forks and scythes into the air!

"Kill her!" they screamed, but fortunately the man that had been speaking to me said, "You should get back over that wall, before they kill you."

I stood up and screamed out, "What's wrong with you?" Only to hear another voice yell out, "She enters our walls and judges us! We must kill her!"

"I'm leaving," I quickly told them as I let out a cough of more dust from my lungs. "She brings disease with her!" screamed a woman from the crowd as she moved her child behind her body.

When I tried to scale the wall, a citizen came out of the mob and kicked my legs out from under me. I should add that my back was turned to him at the time.

I fell to my knees and another villager ran from out of the crowd with his wide pitch fork. My eyes closed as I braced for the impact of the three prongs.

There was an ugly, jarring clank, and when I opened my eyes, the pitch fork prongs were around my neck. The prongs were jammed into the cement of the walls and my head was trapped!

"I have her!" he screamed, as I tried to yank my head out from between the prongs and the wall. A woman in the crowd screamed out, "She goes no where!" Another person yelled, "Get an axe!"

The sun was still setting on the horizon beyond their town, as I could see one of the members of the mob disappear. Probably to get that axe they were just talking about.

My hands clutched the prongs of the pitch fork as the citizen tried to jam his weapon further into the cement and stone to choke me. The original man that spoke to me tried to wrestle away the stocky man with the pitch fork.

The original man called out, "Leave her be!" but the only response from the crowd was, "He has been seduced by her!" Then a woman in the crowd yelled, "If she weren't a devilish seductress, she would be wearing pants to hide her bare flesh!"

The man that tried to help was shoved away by the stocky man with a pitchfork who kept me pinned against the wall on my knees. From behind the lot of them, a man screamed, "I have the axe!"

With that said, the crowd parted for the man with the axe. The sun was directly behind him, and I could see the silhouette of the giant axe that he carried with both hands.

He stepped forward next to the stocky man that held the pitch fork. The stocky man told him, "Here give me the axe! You're too weak to split her head from her neck with one blow."

As the stocky man took the huge axe, one of the hags in the crowd cried out, "When she's dead I want her silky hair!" "And which one of you fiends gets my body?" I had wondered.

"It gets thrown over the walls for your army to pick up!" exclaimed the stocky man as he gripped the axe. There was no one holding the pitch fork anymore, so I scrambled to escape the prongs that held me.

The stocky man drew back to the side with the axe. It was a tense moment, with someone wanting to behead me for a second time in the same day. The original man jumped between us and yelled, "No! You mustn't behead her!"

Two other men from the crowd came and dragged him away. "Wait! We should at least find out who she's looking for," he screamed. The stocky man asked, "Who are you looking for pretty girl?" I clutched the prongs of the pitch fork and exclaimed, "Reiko! General Reiko."

He replied to me, "Sorry, no Reiko here." He drew back further again with the axe and swung it. By some matter of fate, luck or strength, I pulled the pitch fork out of the wall and jammed the wooden edge into the stomach of the stocky man.

He doubled over and dropped the axe, as I whirled the pitch fork around. I stood up as I grabbed the pitch with its wooden handle and pointed the prongs at the villagers.

As I kept my back to the wall, I told them, "I'm not trying to take over your town, I'm trying to save my own village, but I need help to do that!"

In the background from the towering gate, there was a horn blown. So I had to ask the villagers, "What is that horn for?" The women with children ran away from me with the pitch fork. The men merely gripped their weapons tighter.

"What is that horn for?" I asked a second time. The original man that had spoken to me shook the two men that held him and then he answered me, "Do you not know?"

"Do I look like I know at all what goes on in this town?" I wondered aloud. The men advanced on me and circled around me with their machetes, and scythes, as the man answered, "It's our warning that an invasion is coming."

I comically exclaimed to him, "That's only a coincidence!" "She heralds the invasion!" cried one of the men as he lunged after me with his machete. When he approached, I pointed the points of the pitchfork at him.

However, the threat of being impaled didn't stop him! He swung at me with his machete and I quickly dodged the blade instead of squaring him at the tip of the pitch fork.

He continued to swing his blade at me in a much unorganized fashion. With each swing, I brushed aside the long blade with the wooden handle of the pitch fork.

As he tried to slice me, I glanced behind me. I could see that two men with scythes had their blades near my legs. They were intending to stealthily slice through my legs.

But with my single glance, I saw them and leapt over their blades and back to the dirt ground. I defended myself against the machete and circled around him, until I ran away from the mob of people.

The one that had tried to defend me earlier called to them, "We have to prepare for the invaders!" His idea went on deaf ears as I was chased by the men.

"She mustn't reach the gate!" screamed one of the men as I ran beside of the stone wall, until another citizen caught up with me. He thrust his pitchfork and it clang against my own. We sparred. I would keep him away with the three points of my pitch fork and he tried to jab at me with his own fork.

From behind there was a tremendous grunt from a man. When I looked behind me to see what it was, the large axe from the stocky citizen came down after me. An overhead swing, that caused me to fall to the ground and roll out of the way from fright.

The man with the pitch fork was stunned, at how close the axe had come to the both of us. I wasn't even able to stand on my feet when the man with the machete was back. He gripped the handle of his blade and swung down at me, but I raised the wooden handle of my pitch fork above my head.

The blade of the machete almost split through my hair, but it was stopped by the wooden handle of my only means of defense. It wasn't just stopped; the blade was stuck, wedged in the handle. He tried to force it out, and I tried to swing him away from my body without hurting him.

He threw his foot forward and kicked me back into the solid wall of stone and cement. That was what finally freed the machete. From the gate beside us, the horn blew once more to signal that the invasion was close.

The man with the machete swung his right arm with the blade at me. I held up the pitch fork in the air and the tip of the blade clashed against the stone rock.

He dropped the blade to the ground and swung his wrist in the pain of his weapon against stone. Next to my leg another scythe was swung! I defended myself with my pitch fork. The point of the scythe was trapped in the prongs of the fork until he yanked his arm.

The fork went forward, almost out of my hands, but he kept his weapon and swung it again at my legs.

I lifted my left right leg, bent my knee and placed the flat of my foot against the stone wall to avoid the blade. When the blade of the scythe clashed against the wall, which sent some sparks to the dirt ground.

The man with the scythe didn't stop; he whirled around with his short single handed scythe. He threw his body more toward me, and his scythe was sent toward my left leg.

When I raised my left leg to avoid the blade, I fell to the ground next to the wall. With his unarmed left hand, he gave me a weak jab to the nose and followed up with a slice from his single handed scythe.

I ducked to dodge his right hand with the scythe and pushed him away. However the second man with a scythe quickly found his way into the fray again.

"I'm not here to invade you!" I cried out as he swung his long handled scythe at me and I leapt from my knees to my feet. I stomped down on the wooden handle of his scythe and trapped it beneath of my feet. Using my pitch fork, I was able to keep my balance from being thrown off.

His scythe was pinned beneath of my feet, but the man with the pitch fork tried to run me through with the prongs of his weapon.

With my own pitch fork still in my hands, I was able to catch my wooden handle between two of the prongs of his pitch fork; just before the points of his fork ran through my face. I pushed with my might to keep from losing any strength, because if I would be dead from the points.

I could tell that the man with the machete had the blade back in his hand, when he thrust the blade forward at me. In a quick motion, I bobbed my head to the side and avoided the tip of his machete.

To keep the blade away from my face, I rotated the wooden handle of my pitch fork. When I rotated the blade, the other pitchfork rotated as well, because the handle was still stuck between two of the prongs.

The handle of my pitch fork knocked away the machete, only to have him thrust it forward at me again. This time it bent at the handle of being jammed on the wall.

I was about to lose the battle against the pitchfork that was trying to push its way into my left eye and face. So I threw my right hand up, and brought my left hand down. I rotated the handle, and with the prongs of his fork caught in my handle, his pitchfork spun from his hands to the ground!

When I stood to my feet, there were arrows that came over the wall behind me. The arrows were on fire and landed on the roofs of the houses in the town.

After a brief second of watching the flaming arrows on the roofs of the houses, the silence was broken again with the intensity of the men around me. The man that had carried the machete let out a scream as he threw a punch at me.

It was a very wild low jab, but when he threw his punch, the long handled scythe was able to be yanked out from under my feet. My feet flew out from under me and the citizen smashed his hand into the wall. He then screamed in pain, as he cradled his left hand.

I ran away from the action and attacks from four men with weapons. Two men with scythes, one that had a machete and the one that had the pitch fork picked it up off of the ground and they all came after me.

The sun had set; the only real light in the town came from either from inside of the houses, or the roofs that were on fire. As I ran into the town, women came out of their houses with buckets of water to put out their roofs.

Each of the houses was on stilts to protect them from the floods of the beach that they were on. It made for an easy hiding place for me. I hid beneath one of the houses that wasn't on fire and remained there.

I could see the feet of the men in front of me. They were trying to figure out where I had gone to. After a moment of holding my breath, all of the feet in front of the house ran off in different directions.

My head fell upon the dirt and sand beneath of me. In the darkness, with all of the fires, they had better things to do than find me. I was safe for a moment.

That moment quickly ended, because behind me, the two scythes reached under the house. "She's here!" screamed one of the men as his scythe narrowly avoided my body. It scratched through the dirt next to me.

The second scythe was jammed into the dirt at my feet as he tried to catch my feet with the point of the blade. The two men quickly came beneath of the house with me. They kept reaching at me with their scythes, but I stayed ahead of them, as I crawled beneath of the house.

Once I came to the edge of the house, I poked my head out to see if anyone was around. There was nothing that I could see, but then I was shocked when a flaming arrow lanced its way into the dirt beside me!

My eyes looked up to the night sky above me. There was only darkness overhead, no flaming arrows. So I crawled my way out from underneath of the house as the men with their scythes were narrowly behind me!

When my body was stretched out across the ground, I heard a tremendous grunt I had heard before. I yanked my feet out from under the house and curled into a ball as the axe from the stocky citizen sliced into the ground where my lower half was.

He screamed into the night sky over the fact that he had missed me with the axe once more. From the darkness I heard someone say, "You pretty girl, this way!"

I ran away from the man with the axe into the darkness of the town. There was no other choice than to follow the voice. "Over here!" it called to me.

In the darkness, I was quickly lost. My pace slowed down as I looked back to the fires in town. It was not exactly burning to the ground, but there were more fiery arrows being shot unto the town's roofs.

My gaze was disturbed when I was grabbed around the waist and dragged away kicking and throwing elbows to whomever took me. The man that held me told me, "Hush! I'm saving you from them!"

I continued to struggle until he released me. In the darkness I turned to him and shoved at him blindly. I screamed as fiercely as I could, "Keep your hands off of me."

He stumbled backward in the darkness, and after a moment, I heard him vaguely utter, "Okay, I will." He then asked, "What's your problem anyway?" I yelled at him that, "My problem is that everyone I've met tries to kill me!"

"Hey I'm not trying to kill you, I'm trying to help," he told me. After that, a flame was lit next to his face. It was a large torch that illuminated the two of us.

He then clarified himself, "And I meant why you need to find this general. What sort of problem do you have?" I looked upon his face in the light of the flame as I told him, "My village was taken by invaders. My people were enslaved."

"Just like my town is now," he uttered as he looked out to his town. There was a brief moment of silence as I looked to his town as well. I then asked him, "Do you really think that I brought these invaders upon your town?" "No. You couldn't have, but the others are leery of outsiders," said the stranger.

After a long pause, he elaborated, "There is a man that has tricked us before." "What man?" I asked, with the stranger quick to respond, "A man that has taken on many disguises." "You must have been blind to know that this is clearly not a disguise," I snapped.

"The man," said the stranger, before he looked over my body in the torch light. "It is not just a disguise he takes on, he becomes other people," continued the stranger. We watched his town, as I told him that, "I have never heard of such things."

"You don't need to hear of such things for them to exist," he replied, before he tried to add, "My name is." I cut him off and folded my arms as I asked him, "So are we going to talk or are we going to do something before your town before it burns to the ground?"


	11. Chapter 10: Take Back

CHAPTER 10: TAKE BACK

In the torchlight, I could see that the man I spoke with had long black hair. His hair was tied in a tall pony tail, with a pair of long wisps of hair next to his ears.

The sky glowed ever so faintly as three flaming arrows came down into the ground near us. "We've got to go. They know we're here," I exclaimed.

When I grabbed the man's arm to pull him with me, the face of a Tarkatan appeared from the darkness! The mighty mutant roared and exposed his dagger like teeth, giving both of us a real fright!

The Tarkatan attacked me with his blades extended. It tried to swipe through me with both blades simultaneously, but I fell backward to avoid them.

The man swung the torch at the Tarkatan to keep it at bay. It was of little use, a torch against twin thick blades! He battered the torch into the body of the Tarkatan, and the Tarkatan merely swung one of his blades at him, which split the torch in half!

I stood up, grabbed the man's arm and told him, "Run." He followed as we ran to the light of the town on fire. However, the man with the long pony tail carried the torch with him.

The two of us didn't stop running away from the Tarkatan, but from the darkness and into the light of the torch came a pair of Tarkatans! One pounced on my back, and the other pounced on his back.

The torch was dropped as my partner groaned in pain from the Tarkatan blade that had lanced right through his shoulder. Meanwhile, with the Tarkatan on me, I was able to slip from his clutches due to how much drool he had poured on me from his mouth.

I quickly scurried into the darkness away from the torch light. As for my partner, he writhed in pain from the Tarkatan that twisted its right blade in his shoulder. When the Tarkatan moved his forearm, the man's body contorted due to the blade.

The Tarkatan that had been atop of me put his foot on the man's neck so he couldn't contort his body anymore. With a pose on top of his neck, the Tarkatan let out a hiss.

That is the point that I rushed out of the darkness and hurled my body into the Tarkatan atop of his neck. The Tarkatan was shoved into the darkness, while the other withdrew its blade from the man's shoulder.

I raised my left leg into the hair, and with the flick of my foot, I punted the Tarkatan beneath of the chin. It lifted him in the air, but he landed propped up on his elbows. He literally shook off the effect of my kick as I helped the man to his feet.

I tried to get him away from the light of the torch, but he shoved me away from him and yelled, "No! Don't help me! My town needs your help more!"

The Tarkatan then extended his blades from his forearms, which lifted his body off the ground. "I'll deal with this one," said the man as he stood at a face off with the Tarkatan, but I didn't stick around to see how it went.

When I was back to the main street of town, I could see the man with the single handed scythe doing battle against another Tarkatan. The blades of the mutant were extended, and the scythe did a fair job of creating sparks when they met the steel of the dual blades.

The man kept his right arm with the weapon in the fury of the fight against the Tarkatan, while he kept his body away as far as he could. From behind him, other Tarkatans pounced on him and brought his body to the ground.

In an absolute frenzy, the mutants ate the flesh from off of his bones, while he screamed into the streets of the town.

The town was absolutely overrun by Tarkatans as they scaled the walls. Men running away from the mutants, but most were merely pounced on and devoured by the sharp teeth of the Tarkatans.

Even from beneath of the houses the Tarkatans attacked. They would yank the men under the houses amongst screams and beastly growls. It was an absolutely horrible sight.

There was no one I could help, but I did spot one man who needed help. It was the man with a pitch fork as. He was caught in a battle against a Tarkatan warrior. The man battered away the beats blades with the pointed prongs of the pitchfork. He waited for the right moment, until he jammed the pitchfork straight into the mutant's heart!

He continued to jam his pitchfork into the heart of the mutant over and over again, until he was sure that it was dead. Out from behind a building came another Tarkatan, as it slowly extended a single blade from its forearm.

It was silent and maniacal as it looked at the man with its red beady eyes. When the Tarkatan stepped out further from the building, I finally helped someone, when I rushed in and gave him a wing arm.

That didn't do much to the Tarkatan other than make me the focus of his attack. He lurched forward at me with his mouth open and his teeth pointed at me!

I somewhat sidestepped his attack and gave the back of his neck a circling hand strike. It knocked the fiend straight to the ground and he bounced with a light puff of sand and dust out from beneath of him.

At that point, the prongs of the pitch fork came at me. I pulled the prongs away from my body and jammed his pitch fork into the wooden walls of the house we were next to.

The man gave me an angry look as he tried to pull the pitch fork out of the wood of the wall. I gave him a cold look myself, for attempting to kill me when I wasn't looking.

As for not looking, the Tarkatan on the ground propped up his body and he stood on his knees beside the two of us. The man continued to try and yank the pitchfork out of the wall to defend us. In the meantime, I took my fighting stance and the Tarkatan clashed a spark from his two blades. His spark show was a show of fright to the two of us.

When the Tarkatan rushed at two of us, he had one arm spike pointed at each of our bodies. A grunt came from the darkness and the blade of a huge axe followed it.

The Tarkatan's body was split in two and the axe was swung so hard that it went through the wooden wall of the house. His torso dropped to the ground of sand and dirt, while the stocky man pulled his axe from the wall.

From beside me, the man with the pitch fork had also been able to get his weapon from the wall. I had noticed that the pitchfork was turned around so that its prongs could point to me.

At the same time, the stocky farmer took a wide stance of his feet and raised the large axe above his head. With a huge grunt, he swung the axe down.

The head of the Tarkatan went flying off, and the stocky farmer told the two of us, "We have bigger foes to fend off." The man with the pitch fork looked me right in the eyes and agreed, "That we do." He then added, "Now if you don't run, I'll ram this pitch fork right through you."

I backed away from the two of them and their rough looks and once I was far enough away, they turned around and ran to find more Tarkatans.

From around the corner of the house came the original man that I had talked with. He doubled over forward and was out of breath. He clutched his shoulder, which was covered in blood.

I noticed that his body was scarred and wounded, as he found the strength to stand upright once more. "We need to get out of here," he said, while more fiery arrows found their mark into the roof of the houses.

"The survivors are all going to be leaving in ships," he told me, before he grabbed my wrist and told me, "Come. They are at the shores!" He ran with me to the rocky beach beside the town.

In the dark water, I could tell that there were already row boats in out there. He led me to a rowboat and just about pushed me down into it.

"Here," he said, before he looked back into the town. It had quickly become a chaotic scene, the buildings were on fire. There were Tarkatans everywhere. The man turned to me and said, "What are you waiting for?"

He picked up the oars next to the row boat and put them in the boat next to me. "You have your oars, you have your boat, now go!" he told me as he gestured with his good arm. He then added, "If you follow the coast, you should reach a boathouse, next to a waterfall. It has been said that an aging warrior lives at the boathouse and practices near the waterfall. Perhaps he is one you are looking for."

I stood up in the boat and told him, "I'm not leaving! I want to help." He replied loudly, "Its our town, not yours! It's our fight!"

When I took a step out of the row boat back onto the rocky beach, he wondered to me, "If you die here, who will save your own village?" "If everyone in your town dies, who will be left to fight with me?" I asked him after I stepped completely out of the boat.

"Fine," he told me, "But if you're here to fight; then pick up a weapon!" The closest thing around was one of the oars in the boat, so I reached down and picked it up. Then I grasped the oar with both hands and told him, "Alright, now I'm ready."

I realized he didn't have a weapon, so I reached down to grab the other oar and I threw it to him. He caught it with one hand, and I told him, "Now you're ready."

The two of us faced his town, and he uttered, "Now let's take back my town." I couldn't help but be secretly confident after hearing something like that.

As we walked through the town to find the Tarkatans, he told me, "My name is Tan Jun Jho." "And mine is Li Mei," I said while keeping a look out for Tarkatans. "I tried to tell you earlier, but you cut me off. I wanted to tell someone," he said with an awkward pause. He then added, "Incase I don't live through this."

After that was said, a Tarkatan spotted us. He raced toward us, and extended his blades out! The Tarkatan leapt at the two of us in one of the narrow streets of the town. Jho and I went apart, he stood at one side of the street, and I stood against the wall of another end of the street.

The Tarkatan opened his arms and scraped them into the wooden walls of the buildings on the street. Particles of wood flew everywhere, and we both ducked the dual blades of the Tarkatan as the cut over our heads.

When the mutant landed, he rolled to his side, and then he quickly stood up to his feet. I was quickly in the Tarkatan's face with my oar and I bashed him directly in the skull without anymore trouble.

The body of the Tarkatan slinked sideways and fell to the ground limp. "Is he still breathing?" I wondered, but when Tan Jun looked over the Tarkatan, he asked, "Do you even want him to be breathing?" "Yes and no," I answered.

From behind us came a voice, "What are you two doing here?" Tan Jun and I jumped to see who said that. We were both armed with our oars.

Once we turned around, we could see that it was the stocky man with the axe along side of the man with the pitch fork. "We both thought you were dead!" exclaimed the stocky man. The explanation that, "I'm only alive, because you let me live," came from my lips, but the smaller man with the pitchfork told me, "He didn't mean you!"

"I meant Tan Jun," said the stocky man as he gave Tan Jun a hard slap on the good shoulder to show comradely. Tan Jun then gestured with his good arm to the stocky farmer, "This is my broad friend, Chang Pau." Then he gestured to the smaller man with the pitch fork, and this is his little brother, "Yuen Pau."

The stocky man ignored the introductions and said, "Tan Jun, we need to get out of here. There are too many of these mutant beasts. We haven't seen anybody else alive but us and the women are already out on the water already."

"We have the four of us," replied Tan Jun. "Her?" asked the man with the pitch fork, as he pointed it toward me. He then added, "She brought them here! I say that we kill her, so it cannot happen again!" "She wouldn't do anything like that," said Tan Jun in my defense.

"Knowing about it and bringing it are two different things," said the stocky Chang Pau, who then added, "Look at her covered in dry blood and sweat! The Tarkatans smelled her out and followed her scent here!"

Tan Jun dropped his oar to the ground, and clutched his shoulder. He mustered the strength to tell them, "Even if she brought them here, they're here now. And I for one am not going to run from the only home I've ever known in my life!"

He held his oar up and screamed, "Now if you're standing here with me, let's defend this town, before there's nothing left but dirt and rubble to defend!"

Immediately after that was said, a Tarkatan quickly dropped from a nearby roof with his blades extended. The Tarkatan crossed his blades, and then sliced them out in a scissor effect to slice through Tan Jun's waist and cut him in half.

Tan Jun's eyes looked straight ahead and he was dead instantly. The upper half of his torso gushed blood as the three of us looked at him in shock.

My shock however turned to rage, and I swung my oar and hit the Tarkatan warrior in the stomach, which doubled him over. I spun my body around, along with the oar extended and clubbed the face of the mutant, whose body spun face first to the ground.

I had deep panicked breaths in my lungs as I looked over the dead Tarkatan. From behind me, I heard one of the two men tell me, "I hate to do this."

The last thing that I remember about that night was when I turned around, I turned around, Tan Jun's oar had came whapping across my face.


	12. Chapter 11: The General

CHAPTER 11: THE GENERAL

When I awoke, everything was covered in a veil of mist. It was dark and the smell of sulfur was in the air. I was groggy and used the wall to prop myself up against.

I heard a familiar voice, "Find Reiko." I asked the voice, "Where is he?" There was no answer; instead I walked along the dark wall of stone through the mist that covered the area.

It was hot, I was sweaty again, and when I heard someone call out, "Li Mei help!" I knew the voice, and I wondered, "Qualin? Where are you?"

I could hear him screaming, he was struggling against something. My pace quickened to find him in the darkness of the black mist.

The mist finally disopated and I found Quilan on the floor on his knees. He was covered in blood. The room was tiny and dark. I asked him, "What is it?" Quilan continued to look to the floor with the top of his scalp to me. I asked again, "What is it Quilan?"

"I can't see," he told me, and in the darkness it was difficult to see anything. Then Qualin looked up at me, his eyes were gone and bleeding profusely. He uttered, "Kano took my eyes."

When I turned around to exit the room, Kano was there with a sadistic grin on his face. His red eye glowed in the dark and he reached out for my beating heart in my chest.

I snapped awake from the terrible nightmare with the sun in the sky. I was very dizzy from being knocked out by the oar, but I shockingly realized that I was in a row boat! I sat up and the row boat shifted as I looked back to the land.

The wooden houses on stilts had burned to the ground. There was no sign of life on land. I remembered seeing other row boats in the water last night, but this morning, they had all disappeared. I was the only one out in the water.

But when I tried to search for other signs of life, I saw a small hut at the edge of the water. A building made of stone and wood, a very humble dwelling.

The two oars were in the boat with me, and I used them to paddle my way to the humble hut. Once I arrived at the rocky shore, it was eerie that there were no sounds in the air. Everything was still, except for the ripples of water caused by my boat.

I ran the boat onto the rocky shore and pulled it further to make sure it didn't drift away. I then called out to the small dwelling, "Hello!" There was no answer, so I went closer to the hut and knocked on the door.

No one answered the door, so I pushed it open a bit to find that it was empty. It felt too silent, and I quickly turned around to look out to the woods that surrounded the place.

I was very skittish that I was being watched or followed. It was really too quiet and silence is something that I do not handle well. I called out again, "Reiko?" Then I called out, "Perhaps the mysterious warrior is out there instead?"

The air was dead and silent, but then my eyes gazed upon a thin dirt trail that went away from the hut into the forest. Wherever it lead, dirt was a lot easier for my bare feet to be on than the rocky shore.

I hastily followed it, hoping for some sign off life. Then after a few moments of being on the small trail, I heard the first sound. It was the sound of water falling!

My pace quickened as I ran through the green forest to get to the sound of water, but then I found the source. There was a tiny rock formation on the side of a hill. Water poured its way down the hill from a stream, down onto the rock formation where it fell into a stream that lead across the path.

"This is the waterfall?" I muttered to myself. The waterfall was barely taller than I was, but it still counts as a waterfall. I walked to the ankle deep stream of water and followed it with my eyes on the waterfall.

The sound of water splashes overtook me and I ran through the stream to get to the tiny waterfall. With my hand out, I felt the water falling, and then dipped my head under it.

My eyes were closed and I stayed under the tiny waterfall for a moment to cleanse off all of the unpleasantness of, bleeding, fighting, sweating and not bathing for two weeks.

With my body drenched, I could still hear the sound of falling water, so I used my hand to block the water falling from above. As I prevented the water from falling, I could still hear the sound of falling water. The sound was not faint as it had been before.

The sound called to me and I stepped out of the shallow stream to find where the sound originated. I climbed up the small rock formation, and then ran up the hill where the tiny waterfall originated.

Once I was at the top, I was met with a glorious vision of a large waterfall and a tiny strip of rainbow across it. The water drained into a huge water basin on the coast.

My eyes followed the waterfall from the bottom to the top, and that is where I saw him. His body stood in front of the waterfall on natural balcony made of rock.

He had not seen me, because he was throwing fists and kicks in front of him. It was the perfect training ground, isolated with a beautiful view.

I called out to him, "Hello up there!" There was no answer, but perhaps he didn't hear me, because of the sound of the waterfall.

With that in mind, I quickly scaled my newly clean body up the side of the hill to reach the stone balcony. When I made my way up to him, he had his back to me as he continued to practice his martial arts.

His body was strong, his skills looked tremendous even if he had no opponent, and he would be a grand master. When I approached him, he stopped everything. His position was frozen with his foot kicked high in the air!

I remained still for a moment, and he then broke into a frenzy of punches and kicks in the direction the balcony faced. His practice abruptly stopped, and he narrowed his body, with his legs together and his legs at his side.

My body was frozen, and he raised his right hand with his elbow bent without even taking a look at me. I called out to him, "I am trying to find Reiko." Then he tilted his head to take but a glance at me.

I had to ask him, "Are you Reiko?" The side of his face was black like a mask and had two peaks on the side of his face that I could see. His hair was starting to grey. "My name is Li Mei. I come in search of a master that can train me to defeat the new emperors in Mortal Kombat!"

His glance furthered as he put down his hand and turned slowly to face me. He raised his chin in the air and looked down upon me, so I bowed as low and as feminine as I could.

I kept my gaze from his, but I could feel him looking down upon me from the taller balcony like rock. That is when I noticed his dark purple boots and tunic.

The right gauntlet on his hand called for me to rise, and when I stood up I pleaded, "Please train me." His eyes illuminated a blue hue and he gave a broad gesture with his right arm for me to leave.

After that, he turned around with his head bowed, but I told him, "I refuse to leave!" There was no response from the mysterious man in the purple tunic, so I yelled, "At least tell me if you are General Reiko!"

That was a mistake, because he turned to me quickly and unleashed a flurry of Shurikens at me! The five ninja stars flew at me and I was able to nimbly bow and maneuver around two of them. The other three stars were stuck in a line, from my bandaged leg, going up my hip.

It was more of a sharp annoyance than anything, but then the mysterious man turned around and began to race toward the edge of the rock! With great quickness he leaped off of the rock into the air toward the waterfall!

Magically, a circular portal of blue light appeared and engulfed him before he reached the waterfall. I was in awe of his tactic; Awe and sharp pain from his Shurikens in my leg and hip.

I continued to gaze at the waterfall as I pulled out the stars from my leg one by one. After the third star had been pulled out, I noticed something in the waterfall.

An opening exactly to where he had jumped, so I went back a bit further from the edge of the rock balcony. After a few short breaths, I dashed to the end of the rock, where it dropped off to the water basin below and I took a flying leap into the waterfall!

My body went through the waterfall and turned as I hit the ledge of a cave opening. I rolled on my side from the momentum and quickly stood up with my legs at a wide stance.

The cave wasn't that large, it was more like a deep and wide crevasse in the side of the cliff. It was brightly lit, and the shadows from the water danced on the floor of the cave.

Standing before me was the mysterious warrior; I asked him, "Who are you?" There was no answer, as the warrior took off his gauntlets and their spiked knuckles.

I asked, "Do you even speak?" His eyes continued to glow blue as they stared me down. My arms were apart wide, and my left palm pointed at him as he threw his pair of gauntlets down between us.

"I speak," he said, "When those around me do not listen." I told him that, "I was beginning to think you're a mute," but he quickly interrupted with, "I have told you to leave."

"Now it was either brave of you to jump through that waterfall," he said, with a pause, "Or you must really need my help. There has never been anyone to follow me like that."

I wondered aloud, "Where did you learn to disappear into the blue light like that?" "My years serving at the side of a fallen Elder God have blessed me with powers," he replied. "Elder God?" I quipped, but he elaborated, "They are the true rulers of reality and they watch how the worlds are created and destroyed."

"Then they must have hated our world to have brought about the terrene of the former emperor Shao Kahn," I stated, and the mysterious man elaborated, "It is their policy to never interfere in the affairs of mortals."

"The former emperor Kahn was the emperor that I served for so long," stated the man in dark purple, before he added, "I am the General that you seek. I am Reiko. At least I used to be a general, but now I lead no man."

I quipped to him, "Good, then you have a lot of spare time to teach me." The general's eyes dimmed from their bright blue for a brief moment, before they charged again to a bright blue.

"I will make with you this deal," he said, before he elaborated, "If you defeat me, right here; Right now. I will become your sensei. You shall be my student and I will instruct you."

"My injuries give you an unfair advantage," I told him, but he quickly replied, "Your first lesson is that is merely an excuse to lose, but you stand ready before me to fight."

"Now, give yourself a reason to win!" he yelled, before he waved me forward with both of his hands. I grit my teeth and told him, "I fight to free my village!"

He quickly became poised for his first attack by lowering his body with his left leg extended out and his fists in the air. Reiko then hurled his body into the air and disappeared in a self made portal of blue light.

The ground beneath of me quickly swelled with the same blue light and to my surprise, he emerged behind me and grabbed me. His body bent over backward and he dumped me on my neck to the ground.

He followed up with a combination that was good and evil. A pair of punches that hurt like a snake's fang and ended with a reverse side kick that sent me to the wall of the cave.

Mercilessly, he threw a circle of stars at me. Each one found its mark and stuck in my limbs. Two stars were stuck in each of my legs, and one in each arm.

When I tried to pull them out, he brought another flurry of attacks to me! I yanked one star out and he connected with another combination of snake fang punches, and a chin breaking uppercut, that sent me over backward to the rock floor of the cave.

He leapt high into the air of the cave and disappeared into the eye of a self made blue portal. The ground around me began to glow, and the body of Reiko tore out of it once more. He grabbed my body again and dumped me on my head once more.

I remained on the ground, and Reiko stood above me poised to attack. He probably could have killed me at any time, but he let me get back to my feet and pull out each one of the six stars that were still in me.

Once the stars were out, I lowered my stance and parted my arms to await his next aggressive attack. He pounced to me, and I expected another flurry of snake fang punches, but he twirled his body around and connected with a gusting wing from his right hand.

My body flew across the room, and the general followed me with a leap and a lunge. He heaved my body into the air and slammed me against the wall of the cave, then flung me back to the floor.

He left me there bruised and took his fighting stance once more. To his surprise I stood back up and took my own stance again. His eyes illuminated a brighter blue, and he threw his body into a spinning motion. He spun around, and circled my body, until he was behind me.

When I turned around, he had his elbows ready for me. He threw one elbow, but fortunately I dodged it, only to have him chip my ankle with a low kick to my bad leg. He followed up with a devastating flip kick that sent me through the air.

Reiko wasn't through with me, while I was still in the air, he leapt up in the air with me, struck me twice with his fists, then pounded me to the ground.

My body mashed against the rock of the cave floor again, and Reiko waited for me to get up. I noticed that his eyes went to a dull blue, almost white. That was at least until I stood back up. His eyes illuminated once again.

I told him, "I'm not leaving until you teach me some of your fancy tricks." There was only silence from him as he circled me with a confident stride. He stopped at a pile of rocks and reached behind them.

From a hidden part of the cave, he pulled out a club that had spikes going through it. He held it in his hands and walked toward me. There was a standoff, but I kept my eyes focused on his club.

He dashed toward me in the small cave and swung his club at me. I ducked out of the way and he clubbed it into the wall, and then backhanded his weapon at me. He followed me, and tried to batter me with his brutal weapon.

The club slammed into the rocks of the wall, the floor, and finally when he swung at my stomach, the club stuck in the wall! The spikes had become wedged, which created an opening for me. I belted his stomach with various palm strikes. I hit him with sideward palms, hammering palms and halting palms and even the heel of my palm.

Finally, I pushed the heel of my foot into his stomach, and lifted him over my head with the mere extension of my leg. He landed on his feet, and turned with his arm extended. Three of his Shurikens flew from his hand, and I rolled over a rock to save myself from them.

When the stars clanged against the smooth rock, I leapt onto the rock, and raised my knee to the air. My foot flicked at his head, but he easily blocked it, and then threw his own foot with a roundhouse kick.

I narrowly jumped over his leg and landed on the rock floor of the cave. The general threw a fury of strikes at me, but I pushed them aside to avoid them.

My body spun, and went down as I extended my foot with a back sweep. Reiko jumped to avoid my foot and when I stood up, he slapped my face with an elbow and then another quick elbow from his other hand.

He took me by the shoulder and the lower back and threw me straight out of the cave through the waterfall. I plunged all the way from the cave straight to the deep basin of water beneath.

I emerged from the dark water and flung my hair back over my head to my back. When I looked up, I gasped for air and saw the general leap from the waterfall himself! He disappeared into a portal of blue energy.

The blue portal appeared above the large balcony like rock he had originally been on. He slowed his speed down to not go over the edge and then he looked down upon me from the perch.


	13. Chapter 12: Rise of the Fallen

CHAPTER 12: THE CLEARING (RISE OF THE FALLEN)

I screamed to him, "Come down here and face me!" With one hand he held his club, and with the other he waved me off with a broad gesture of his arm.

Reiko turned around to ignore me, but I continued to yell at him, "This fight isn't over!" However, to Reiko it was, so he threw up the back of his hand with elbow bent. I was undaunted, so I began to swim my way to the rocky shore and I screamed, "I will earn your respect!"

Without warning, Reiko turned around and dashed toward the end of his rock perch and leapt off toward me. He disappeared into the light of his swirling blue portal and reappeared from another on a large rock next to the water basin.

Reiko scowled down upon me with his eyes illuminated a bright blue. The darkness of his facial features made him look ferocious.

I swam myself to the edge of the basin and continued to look up to my opponent as he uttered, "You do not listen. You do not pay attention." "And I haven't quit either," I retorted, only to hear him sneer, "You have lost!"

He waved me away with another gesture, but I continued to walk up the rocky shore toward the large rock he stood on. "If you paid attention," said Reiko, before he stated, "You would have realized that if you defeated me, then why would you need training?"

I called up him, "You just wanted someone to spar against." "Now you are open to pay attention," said Reiko, before he continued, "I remain isolated to keep myself from having to face an army of men that have been angered from my two previous lords."

I spoke the words, "I have defeated Tarkatans, and escaped the dungeon where my people are being held." "But have you killed the Tarkatans to save your people?" asked Reiko. I lacked a response, so the general quickly told me, "You must be ready to kill to save your people, and if you do not, they will only be captured again!"

"At least that is what I would do," added Reiko after a momentary pause. I stayed in my silence, and let the mute speak, "I suggest that you find a real master to learn from, because I am a general, not a master. If you continue combat with me, I will kill you."

He then told me, "Now leave me in peace," before he turned around, dropped himself off of the rock and walked away into the forest. I did not try to stop him; instead I chose to rest with my arm against the rock that Reiko stood on.

After a few moments of ringing out my hair, I heard a loud roar in the distance. It was far away, no need to worry, so while I did look to where the roar had come from it was no real concern.

Another moment passed by, and there was a second roar from the trees. While it did not sound any closer, it sounded angrier than the first.

As I waited looking to the trees, the echoes of the second roar faded into the sound of a wounded animal. There was a third roar that echoed its way down to the sounds of something wounded.

I climbed up on the rock that Reiko had stood and looked to the forest to see I could see the creature. However, there was nothing to see, just the loud sounds of something in pain.

The sounds from the creature grew louder and louder. My curiosity peaked, so much that I climbed down off of the rock and carefully walked into the forest.

The treetops kept the forest in an unnatural shadow. After a bit of a trek into the forest, I found a clearing. Even in the clearing, the tops of the trees had made a dark canopy to cover everything in shade. I crouched down behind shrubs to see that in the clearing were dead warriors everywhere.

There were only warriors with one specific look to them. They were warriors from the same army. They were from the army of the Shokan; a very recognizable race of humanoids with four arms. Shokan have four arms, because the majority of them are half man and half tigers or lions.

The tall grass in the clearing hid the large bodies well. I did not notice them at first, but I saw some of them dead against the trunks of the trees. The dead Shokan that I could see had their throats slit.

There were a dozen dead, except for one, that struggled to get up. His body bled from cuts on his stomach, legs and his arms. The giant Shokan could barely catch his breath, but he still rose to his feet.

He was a tower of might and muscle covered in armor. One of his shoulders was heavily armored with a huge spiked shoulder pad. Atop of his head was a helmet with a long pony tail that made him look even taller. He was what the minority of the Shokan were; half man, half dragon.

As the giant Shokan held his side, he commanded with heavy breath, "Show yourself!" I however, remained hidden behind the bushes; in fact I lowered myself further to look through the bush and not over the top of it.

When the giant Shokan looked around slowly, I noticed that on the chest of his armor was a seal painted in red. While I focused on him, he noticed the others that were dead and strewn about. He then barked again, "As long as there is breath in my body I will find you wherever you hide!"

He continued to circle and look over his shoulder, before he finally yelled, "Look me in the face and stop this coward!" There was no chance that I was coming out of the bushes.

However, after a brief wait I did not have to. From the shade of the trees grew a shadow behind the Shokan. Shadows are usually only seen upon other objects, but this shadow stood in the air! Shadows are usually just shade, however, with this shadow, it was not transparent; it was pure black.

With the rise of the shadow came an uncomfortable cold breeze that went through the trees of the forest. The bush that I hid behind shook and swayed from the force of the breeze.

The Shokan continued to circle with the clearing, as the dark black shadow remained behind him. In front of my eyes, I saw the shadow flair out its long thin arms in a terrifying fashion!

In the right hand of the shadow, a long blade extended that looked like a hand sickle. The huge Shokan looked over his shoulder at the shadow behind him. He quickly turned around and swung both of his left arms at the mysterious figure, only to have them cut by the sickle of the shadow.

After the attack, the shadow danced through the shade of the forest. The mysterious shadow would quickly jump from behind tree trunk to tree trunk to remain hidden.

The Shokan moaned in pain, just before he chased the shadow! He looked behind each tree, but just after the mysterious figure went to the next tree.

Without warning, the shadowy figure quickly rose in the center of the shaded clearing. The angered Shokan saw the shadow and charged at him with a fierce roar! The clever shadow sidestepped the Shokan and sliced his thighs with its sickle.

Ignoring the pain and blood loss, the giant Shokan stood up again only to see that the mysterious figure had disappeared once more.

Frustrated, the four-armed Shokan began swinging his four arms wildly. He was angered and frustrated a dangerous combination for someone with such brutal strength.

Just when the towering Shokan rested from his flurry of punches, the shadowy figure appeared behind him. It was as if the shadow literally sprang from the Shokan's shadow.

This time the mysterious figure used its sickle to cut down into the calf muscle of the Shokan's leg. When the Shokan turned around with a brutal two handed punch, the figure literally disappeared into a puff of smoke.

For a moment, I thought that with the might of the Shokan, he probably destroyed the mysterious shadow and turned it into smoke! Afterward, the Shokan held his wounds, and looked around for where the shadow would next appear. Just watching the Shokan had made me dizzy from how many circles he spun.

Near one of the trees, next to one of the dead Shokan, the shadow rose once more. It took a tall form in the shade next to the tree, before its arms suddenly flared as they had done before!

When the mysterious shadow tried to step out from beyond the tree, a pair of huge hands grabbed the right leg of the figure! It was from one of the fallen Shokan showing life. The fallen Shokan held onto the figure's leg and reached up with his two other hands to throttle the figure!

However, the mysterious figure calmly swiped the fallen Shokan's neck and slit it with a gush of blood! The fallen Shokan held its neck and let out a gurgled moan from the pain, before the mysterious figure kicked the fallen Shokan in the head.

The towering Shokan had noticed his ally grasp onto the shadow's leg, so with all of his might, the Shokan dashed that direction! However, he was too slow, and the figure disappeared in a shroud of smoke!

The towering Shokan was too late and roared in frustration, before he stomped the ground in a poor display. He continued to roar and raise his arms in frustration, only for me to see the mysterious figure rise from behind the Shokan!

The shadow was tall and dark. It even towered above the Shokan. When it was poised and ready, the shadow flared out its arms. I could clearly see the blade of its sickle extended.

With one swift action, the mysterious figure used its blade to slit the side of the Shokan's neck! It tried for the throat of the Shokan, but the Shokan spun his body and held out all four of his arms!

The arms of the Shokan spun and clubbed the mysterious figure in the stomach! The figure went flying from the force of the Shokan's long arms! Its shadowy body slammed against a tree.

A split second later, the shadowy figure had disappeared further into the woods. It left a trail of black ooze on the trunk of the tree where it had been knocked to.

The huge Shokan roared in either pain or a sense of accomplishment at the fact he had finally hit the shadowy figure. As the Shokan roared to the tree tops, a gush of blood poured from his neck. The roar soon stopped, when the Shokan held his neck to stop the bleeding.

He slowly calmed down as the echoes of his roar dissipated in the forest. His breathing became slower and slower as he looked to each one of the fallen Shokan.

With deep breaths, the Shokan stumbled through the tall grass until he was next to a tree that he could lean against. His eyes grew weary and started to close, as he propped himself next to the tree.

The two hands he had on his bleeding neck dropped to his side, and his legs buckled from beneath him. He collapsed next to the tree; he would join the other warriors it seemed.

I cautiously stood up from the bush that I hid behind. The Shokan had his eyes closed, and I looked throughout the clearing to see any other signs of life.

In silence and held breath, I kept my focus on the towering Shokan. I stood in front of him, across the clearing. His eyes did not open, so I merely stood there gazing upon him.

With the Shokan not moving, I parted the bush in front of me and stepped over it into the clearing. It was safe to go through the clearing. There were no survivors, but there was a moment that made my heart pound.

Without warning, the Shokan moved! His head fell forward and his body slumped over away from the trunk of the tree.

In silence, I continued to look straight at him with all of my attention to see if there was still breath in his body. The wind through the trees picked up and sent me into shivers.

Out from the trees charged a large warrior with heavy armor. He had come so quickly into the clearing with his focus on the fallen Shokan that he did not even notice me. I stumbled back and fell into the tall grass where I could stay hidden.

After the charge, the large muscular warrior looked down upon the fallen Shokan. I could not see the face of the warrior, but that is when I recognized him.

The hulking warrior said to the fallen Shokan, "I heard the battle cry of my former ally." The Shokan however stayed slumped over at the trunk of a tree.

"As the prince of the Shokan, you will rise to greet your emperor," said the hulking warrior. The Shokan began to stir as he wondered, "Shao Kahn?"

It was indeed Kahn, but without his skull helmet, he looked less fearsome. The fallen Shokan opened his weary eyes and looked up at the war lord that stood next to him.

"You are alive prince Goro," said Kahn, before he added, "Many times you have been near death and many times you have risen to live again." Goro's head wobbled and had difficulty keeping his focus on Kahn.

I could not focus on anything but the emperor Kahn. He is the single man that conquered my world and many other worlds eons ago. Kahn is the man that has enslaved and extinct races all under his brutal tyrannical rule.

When I was young, I promised myself that if I ever set my eyes upon Kahn in the flesh that I would kill him. There would be no hesitation, I would go for his neck and probably die in the process, but I would kill him.

There he stood, right before me with his back to me. He did not have on his majestic cape as he usually would when he presided over the fights in the arena.

I poked my head out of the grass, but trembled at the sight of the huge emperor as he spoke to the fallen Shokan, Goro. "I believed you to be dead by now," uttered Goro, only to hear Kahn reply, "While I have lost my throne, it will take more than the treachery of two sorcerers to kill me."

"Your timing," said Goro with heavy breaths "astonishes me. The battle with the wraith did not end but a moment ago."

"Now here you stand," uttered Goro with deep breaths. "A prince should not be seated," said Kahn, "He should stand where his father the king sits." Goro uttered a response, "These are my final moments Kahn."

Goro however could not stay focused on the person that spoke to him, so Kahn stated, "You will look at me and not dishonor me by looking away." After a brief pause, he commanded Goro, "Now rise or die where you sit."

The four arms of Goro braced themselves against the ground and the trunk of the tree as he stood to his feet. "If I did not know any better," uttered Goro, "I would say that you are the one that sent that wraith to ambush my soldiers."

"I could have ambushed you myself," stated Kahn with his deep voice. Goro kept focused on Kahn's face, "You are not as mighty as you were Kahn." Even with Kahn's height, he still did not compare to Goro's. "Things change," uttered Goro.

"Other things stay the same. With my infinite power, I can heal your wounds and restore you to health. I am still every bit as powerful as I once was," stated Kahn as he looked up to Goro. "However," added Kahn, "I have the wisdom gained through millennia of rule that tells me when to fight." Goro clutched his neck, and told Kahn, "What do you need?"

Kahn uttered, "I need an ally more than ever prince Goro." "I am no ally to you," said Goro with a long pause. He then added, "You betrayed my people years ago. My alliance is now with another army that rises." After a cough of blood, Goro continued, "It rises up to fight the type of tyranny that you brought."

"As you said, things change," stated Kahn, "There is more at stake than the throne of this realm." "What else is there in your eyes?" asked Goro with a harsh voice before he coughed more blood.

"Survival!" exclaimed Kahn with an equally harsh voice. He then told Goro, "An evil force that I vanquished millennia ago has been resurrected from the lava chambers from deep beneath our very feet." Goro uttered with no hesitation, "Onaga; The Dragon King?"

"He ruled before me, and he will not seek to rule this world," said Kahn, before he added, "he will annihilated it!" Goro's body slouched down a bit from the loss of blood that poured from him.

Kahn spoke to Goro, "If you do not join me, I will leave you here for dead with your fallen Shokan warriors." Goro merely looked to his warriors strewn about to the grass, before Kahn added, "If you join me, I will see to it that your enemies are exile or killed."

Goro gave Kahn a groggy look, when he said, "But you already have an allegiance with them already." "They have done nothing for me!" yelled Kahn, before he added, "After having commanded both the Shokans and your enemies, I have found the Shokan are more worthy to be in my legions."

After mustering enough strength to say it clearly, Goro uttered, "Then I will join you, my emperor!" With that said the entire body of Emperor Kahn took on a bright green glow!

Once the glow had intensified, the light transferred from Kahn's body to Goro's. The glowing light illuminated Goro's yellow skin to a bright green as it healed his injuries.

The light slowly grew dim as it absorbed into the open wounds of Goro. With a mighty roar, Goro let the entire forest know he was well enough to do the bidding of Emperor Kahn!

The four-armed Shokan prince took off his helmet and stripped himself of his armor. He then walked over to one of his fallen warriors and said, "I give you my royal armor and helmet with their crest."

Goro knelt to the dead warrior he spoke to and continued, "You are now my decoy, so that we will have the element of surprise." I could hear him add, "With this realm no longer in the control of a single ruler, our world will be thrown into turmoil. If King Onaga regains his throne, it will be the darkness of annihilation."

Kahn looked over to Goro as he suited the dead warrior with his armor. The huge Emperor Kahn kept his back to me, so I could only see a glimpse of his mysterious face.

Once the Shokan prince had put his armor on the dead warrior, he stood and faced Kahn. The Emperor then confidently walked through the clearing and into the forest again. Goro walked with a big stride as he followed behind the Emperor.

After I was sure the two of them had disappeared into the forest, I rose up from the grass. My eyes stayed focused on where they had gone to.

That was a mistake though. With my eyes focused, my ears were open to hear a voice from behind me, "Well what do we have here?" Startled, I jumped to see who said that. There was the red eye of Kano as he told me, "I never expected to see the moon in the daytime like that little girl."

He had a crooked smirk on his face, as he asked, "Now how much of that did you just see?" I was hesitant to speak, but after a moment, I asked, "How much did you see?"

With his knife, he clanged the metal of his faceplate and told me, "With this (eye)/ (I) see everything." He then gave a soft laugh that was both a cackle and accented.

He then asked me, "Now tell me young lovely, what we should do with you?" That is the point when I realized that there were eyes on me from behind Kano. There were dozens hidden in the darkness, but I could see the shine of their beady eyes.


	14. Chapter 13: Enslaved

CHAPTER 13: ENSLAVED

CHAPTER 13: ENSLAVED

I sneered to Kano, "I thought that I smelled something." "Assure you, that it was not me," replied Kano before he added, "The company I travel with sweat heavy." He then looked to the bushes where his troops remained hidden and told me, "You get used to the smell after a while. You get used to the drool as well."

There was a long pause as he and I stared coldly at one another. "Quan Chi tells me that I cannot kill you," said Kano as he faced me dead on. He then continued, "So," and I quickly interrupted, "You're going to let me go?" There was uproar of laughter from Kano and his men that hid in the shade of the plants.

"Always keep your innocence little girl," said Kano, "It attracts me in such a way that makes me want you even more." I asked him, "What do you want Cyclops?" Kano smirked as he uttered, "Your heart in my hand." He looked to his men as they all laughed.

I folded my arms and asked him, "Is that all?" He approached me closer and said, "No, what I want is that innocence before you're dead."

Without hesitation, I asked, "So is that what you really want; me dead?" "No girl," he said with his accented voice, before he continued, "Because I cannot kill you until Mortal Kombat, you will remain in my protection."

"Me?" I had to ask, with Kano quick to answer, "Yes you! It's a dangerous place out here for a young woman to be without an escort. You never know who might happen along and might want to do unmentionable things to you."

He looked to his men as he uttered, "That someone might even have an entire clan of men behind him." "Stop this game and get to your point," I told him, and with swift lunge of a knife in his hand, he told me, "This is no game, I have been charged with your protection by my employers."

Kano kept his knife pointed at me, as he continued, "Protection as I see fit." He said with a smirk, "You might see it as your enslavement to me; your protector."

I almost rolled my eyes as I asked, "Should I laugh at that or be offended?" "You should put a smile on your face," he said, before he elaborated, "With my protection, you'll live past nightfall."

"It is because of that army you serve that I have barely survived each night for the past two weeks," echoed my voice with a bold tone.

He lowered the arm that held the knife and used his tongue to lick the left side of his upper lip before he continued, "You see, there is a war going on." "I know," I exclaimed, "I seem to always be stuck in the middle of it!"

"We're all going to be caught in the middle of it," said Kano, before he added, "There is a struggle already for this realm, but I can see the rise of more powers. It's not going to be safe for anyone here." "So why do you stay?" I asked, only to hear his answer, "After this tournament, my men and I are going to make an exit to a safe realm."

Kano then told me, "Now it is for your own safety that you come with us," just before he called me, "Little girl." "I would rather take my chances out here alone," I retorted. "What?" asked Kano, before he exclaimed, "This is not a question. You're mine to have!"

With that said one of his Tarkatan goons sprang up from behind me and wrapped a chain around my neck. After he choked me with the chain, he lifted me up off of my feet with my back against his sweaty chest.

My feet kicked in the air, then swung back with my heel kicking into his thighs. After multiple kicks and stomps, the greasy Tarkatan did not give up, instead Kano stepped forward and shoved the blade of his knife at my face.

The tip of the blade stopped right at my cheek and Kano told me, "Don't struggle." He then added with a tired look, "I don't want that pretty face of yours to get stabbed."

I stopped my kicks for a moment and Kano withdrew his arm and the knife in his hand. The Tarkaten then swept my legs to bend my knees and he then shoved me to the ground chain and all.

When I propped my body up with my hands, I heard Kano tell me, "That's it baby. Bow before your new master." I think that I uttered some obscenity in response, but he then uttered, "I want you lower than a dog."

After he said that his right leg swept across his body and buckled my elbow out from under me. I hit the ground with all of the tall grass on it.

As I was still on the ground, Kano commanded, "Chain her. We're taking her with!" There was no grand fight scene followed by an escape, the Tarkatans emerged from the bushes and shrubs where they had hidden.

Dozens of them surrounded me, and one handed Kano the chain I had just been choked with. Inch by inch, the sadistic commander pulled the links of the chain until the end where there was a metal collar at the end of it.

Kano uttered, "Hold her." The only sound that I heard in response was the sound their arm spikes make as they unsheathe from their forearms. That sound was followed by my own scream, because the Tarkatan shot its forearm spike straight through my wounded leg and into the dirt of the ground.

"I said hold her, not hurt her!" exclaimed Kano, but it was met by an unsavory growl from the hideous Tarkatan. When I propped my body up to wince in pain, Kano threw the metal collar around my neck and locked it.

Once the collar was around my neck, the Tarkatan withdrew its forearm spike from my leg. Kano then uttered, "I'll make sure no harm comes to you before the tournament." He laughed to himself and added, "No more harm at least."

He stood up and told me, "Look at the bright side, at least it wasn't your face, or anything else that men look at." I propped myself up to look at him as I clutched my leg. "When I finally face you without your guards or minions," I told him, "I'll see to it that you get the worst death imaginable."

Kano perked up and told me, "I cannot tell you how many people have threatened me with just that same sentence." He yanked the chain on the collar around my neck and asked, "What will this death be that someone hasn't already tried to give to me? Break my neck with your wounded thighs? Melt part of my face off?"

My breaths got heavy as I felt the effects of the blood loss from my legs. I still had the strength when I told him, "I'll start." "Start with what?" asked Kano as he dragged me up with the chain.

With the thrust of my hand, I sent a stick into his mechanical red eye. With a scream I yelled, "Stealing your eye!" The stick went into his eye at the dead center and while Kano wasn't hurt he was shocked.

He dropped the chain he held in his hand, and pulled the stick from deep inside of his red eye. After which he threw the stick away and I could hear the Tarkatans howl either in anger or joy. I couldn't tell which one.

Kano glared at me with his dim red eyes. When I looked up to him, the rim of the eye tried to focus at me. It was a second that felt like minutes, before Kano screamed, "Ah it's no use!" He then punted me in the head.

"Remember what I said when no more harm would come to you?" asked Kano. Without even giving me a chance to answer, he answered himself, "You'll be alive for the tournament, but that's all."

He was about to dish out more punishment, but a Tarkatan appeared from the pack and growled something to Kano. With the turn of his head, Kano had a moment to think to him, before he told the Tarkatan in a reply, "We're taking her with us."

The other Tarkatans around Kano and I worked themselves into a frenzy when they unsheathed the spikes from their forearms. There were growls from every one of the Tarkatans, until Kano told them with his accented voice, "If she dies, Quan Chi will have my head."

In a brief moment of silence, the Tarkatans looked to Kano with their long jagged teeth protruding out of their mouths. Kano knew what they were thinking, but I didn't know until he told them, "You're not killing me either." He then elaborated, "If you kill me, my clan of Black Dragons will see to it that your mutant race becomes extinct."

I wondered from the ground, "How many freak shows are in this realm?" "Too many," said Kano when he looked back down to me. His red eye was dead, and he elaborated, "Someone's going to come and balance this playing field where only the strong will survive."

He turned to his Tarkatan horde and uttered, "And you mutants do not question me again. We have to get ready for something bigger than this girl here."

With the yank of my neck's chain, he tugged me forward behind him. He turned and told me, "Do try to keep up, I'm not going to drag those chubby thighs of yours around all night."

He pulled me away from the mob of Tarkatans that still drooled as they looked at my body for one reason or another. My hands remained at my neck, as Kano kept talking to me, "You see girl, you're not the only one in this tournament."

Kano spoke without looking at me and said, "Everyone wants to win this next tournament. There will be representatives from everywhere and they all want something different."

"So what do you want?" I asked the mad man as we went out of the sight of the Tarkatan horde. "Me?" wondered Kano, who then halted his movement to answer, "I want what any thirsty man wants."

I asked him, "A drink?" "Not just a drink," said Kano, "Everyone here gets a drink. I want the fountain, and I will want a queen at my side." He then continued onward as I asked, "And this is why you want me?" He laughed with an evil coy sound that came from his throat, "You flatter yourself so much!"

"I want someone not so used as you," uttered Kano with his laughter, "I want a soldier; someone not as pristine and above the rest of us than yourself." "So let me go, and go find her," I told him, but he quickly replied, "She's not in this realm love."

"You killed her didn't you?" I had to ask, followed by another question, "Are you going to kill me too?" He snapped his body and turned around to look me in the eye, "Did you not hear me?" I uttered to him as I held my neck, "I must not have." "You are under my protection," said Kano, "Under my protection at least until the tournament."

From behind him, the Tarkatan beasts were whipped into frenzy. Kano kept his gaze on my body and stated, "Someone approaches." His single eye shifted to look at me as he asked, "Who is it?" I had no response for him, because I did not know.

He yanked the chain down and close to his body. My face was forced to press against the metal plate that was the left side of his face. Kano then asked me again, "Who is it girl?" I could only tell him, "Maybe if you had both eyes, you could see."

After that comment, he quickly drew his knife and pressed it to my neck as he said, "Quan Chi never said anything about your tongue still being in your mouth when I give you to him." There was a smile in his voice with that statement.

Meanwhile, the Tarkatans leapt into the foliage to set up and ambush. Moments later an elderly man strolled by the area. He had a long white beard and a tall tail of hair that was tied at the top of his head. His battered robes look like they had traveled through hardship.

The man looked forward to see Kano with his knife pressed against me. With his attention, Kano yelled with his accent, "You might not care about the life of this pretty pear bottomed princess, but care about your own."


	15. Chapter 14: The Wayfarer

CHAPTER 14: THE WAYFARER

CHAPTER 14: THE WAYFARER

We were taken through the forest of Out World. I was lead by the neck by Kano and beside me was the white haired wayfarer. While he had a long white beard to his waist and looked like an elderly man, he was by no means feeble. His mind, spirit and skills were strong.

But, no matter how experienced, strong and cunning he was, he was still no match for the Tarkatan warriors. Kano kept a strong formation of his troops around the three of us.

There was a small army around us, once the packs of Tarkatans had banded together. They were all united by Kano and the lust for blood.

The night we had been captured, another village fell to the Tarkatan horde. They scaled the walls and lunged into the village. Men and women were slain by the forearm spikes and long jagged teeth of the Tarkatans.

It was not too long after that Kano had assembled a temporary pen for the survivors of the attack. Like the dungeon I had been held captive, there were only women, children and the elderly left alive.

Once we were put into the crude pen made of bamboo, Kano walked around the pen to announce, "You are now slaves of the Deadly Alliance and anyone that tries to escape or pray for death will have their children eaten by my ruthless counterparts."

The two Tarkatans next to him perked up with a snarl of joy. Kano told them, "Settle down, you will still get to eat tonight." He then pointed to me with his finger and said, "I assure you that one will try to escape."

He then stepped forward to the pen and looked in at me with his red eye. Meanwhile, the villagers each looked to me with shame. The only thing that I could say was, "Is it my fault that service sucks at this hotel and I want to leave?" I took the chain from around my neck and exclaimed, "They do not have reservations, and they have chains!"

"See what I mean," said Kano, before he turned his back to me and told the villagers "Blame her when your coal faced children are eaten." He then walked away, leaving the Tarkatans to watch us and leaving the villagers to watch me.

One of them asked, "What's she doing in our village?" I had no idea who they were, but they continued to ask questions, "She came with the invaders to Sun Do!" At least now I had some idea of where I was.

The villagers closed in on me, until the white haired stranger approached. He asked a pickup line, "Have we not met before?"

My eyes shifted, but my tense posture did not. I replied, "No where have we met old man."

"Yes," he insisted, "At your school, I have seen you before." I replied, "Well I haven't noticed you."

He quickly laughed, "A beauty not recognizing wisdom. Never do the two intertwine." The villagers that surrounded us were just as confused as I was.

The old man's beard covered lips asked, "Why has Kano taken you?" I was agitated when I wondered, "How do you know him?" "Kano and I have met before," he said with a pause and a laugh, "Many times. He is well known throughout the realms."

I quipped to the old man, "I've never seen him before, but now I see him constantly." "Beauty with a bad boy," the old man chuckled, "That I can see."

"Clean your cataracts," I told him, "I am a prisoner, he enslaved my village." The old man looked around and said, "Yes I can see the people of this," he paused and looked around, before he added, "place."

From the crowd of villagers, someone screamed, "Its Sun Do; You big jerk!" The old man's arms raised with his palms forward as he said, "Settle down."

I boldly stepped forward to the whiskered old man and said, "I intend to enter Mortal Kombat and defeat the deadly alliance!"

The mass of villagers were clueless, and I suppose that I was clueless too, but the old man enlightened me, "Girl, you cannot defeat the two men of the deadly alliance."

I quickly wondered, "Are you saying that because I'm a girl?" "No," he said, "I am saying that because you are weak. Look at your body."

My fist clenched as he looked at me; as all of them looked at me. It felt very uncomfortable. He then told me, "Girls with bigger charms than muscles will make a better empress than an emperor."

"I just want to free my people," I told him as he started to circle around me. He did not stare at me, but he merely paced. Then he asked, "What is your name beautiful girl?"

His question was answered with a question, "Would you dignify me with yours first?" "Shujinko," he said, "Champion of the Elder Gods." With a laugh in my throat, "You don't believe that do you?"

Shujinko told me, "I have been chosen by a great booming voice of the Elder Gods that I will be their champion and be victorious in Mortal Kombat to save my own world."

"I'll say you're on your own planet alright," I wondered, "You mean Out World?" Instead he informed me, "This may be hard to fathom for someone with your superior beauty, but I am from Earthrealm. Most inhabitants call it Earth."

He continued to tell me, "It is a beautiful place with luscious green grass, blue water and sky." I turned my head and told him, "That is not beauty." "Then what is?" he wondered.

"Beauty is the purple sky," I said without hesitation, followed by, "That grand moon that rises in the sky; the solid rock and towering mountains above us." The villagers nodded and some of the women had smiles.

That stopped his pace and he turned his head to me finally. He tipped his head to the mountains and said, "You will die for this ugly place in Mortal Kombat." I took a hostile posture with my fists clenched and screamed out, "I will live for the freedom of my people!"

"You should not go at it alone," said Shujinko with a hidden smile under his thick whiskers. He took a fighting posture and said, "I will teach you all that I know."

Shujinko then told me that, "I have trained since a child under the tutelage of Master Bo Rai Cho."

I took a different stance and waved my arm forward as I harshly told him, "Bring on the lesson!"

Shujinko charged forward with his white beard and hair waving. He screamed, "I begin your lesson with!" a sideward palm, "Lui" an open fist, "He" a back kick, "Ba" and a swinging elbow, "Fa!" All of his attacks were blocked and dodged.

I fought back with the same flurry and screamed out, "Lui he ba fa!" The old man was not even rattled, he bat my hands away with each attack.

After my attack, he screamed out the same four words again, but with different attacks. His fingers were pointed like needles, "Lui" he swept his leg backward, "He" a walking heel kick, "Ba" and a sweeping kick, "Fa!"

All of his attacks were dodged by my fancy footwork, and a back flip hand spring that brought me against the wall of bamboo shoots. It was a moment to catch my breath, but from the shoots came the grizzly long arm of one of the Tarkatans.

I lowered and swung my body away from the Tarkatan arm as I could see its hideous sharp toothed smile between the bamboo shoots. Once I was away, I attacked Shujinko with the same combination, "Lui he ba fa!"

He not phased, because he had taught me, so he knew exactly what was coming.

Next up was a different series of attacks from Shujinko, a hammer palm, "Lui" a strike with the heel of his palm, "He" an uppercut, "Ba" and a flying knee, "Fa!" Three of the four attacks caught me and sent me spinning again to the fence of bamboo shoots.

My body was rattled and my hair draped across my face. There was blood, but I shook my head only to have a Tarkatan forearm spike blast through the bamboo shoots. Luckily my head was no longer there, but I did run out of harms way with my head down and a scream.

I turned and quickly attacked Shujinko the same way, "Lui He Ba Fa!" He expected them and greeted them with a smile.

After his smile ended he sternly told me, "Your next lesson will encompass another art called Mi Zone." Each of his attacks came in pairs; the first was a hook fist, followed by a straight punch. He would yell out, "Mi Zone" with each combination. His next pair of attacks was a high kick followed by a side kick. Both were easily blocked.

To retaliate, I followed his Mi Zone. A hook fist, a straight punch, then a high kick and a side kick. Every attack was blocked by the martial arts master.

His posture lowered, and he threw a low strike, with a crab kick. Both of which I blocked with my shin. He then took a step kick and finally swept me off my feet with a trip.

I stayed on my back for a split second until his fist came after my face. When the fist came down, my body was no where to be found. I rolled out of the way, lowered my posture and did the same flurry of attacks.

Each attack was dodged and evaded only to have him slap me down harshly as he screamed, "Mi" and punched me in the side, "Zong!" I was not down, just doubled over.

My body then fell and rolled until I stood up on one knee again. Shujinko ran toward me and screamed, "Mi" while he threw his hand at my pelvis. It was more embarrassing, than anything. Then he followed with, "Zong" and kicked me right between the legs.

I dropped to the ground on my side only to hear the laughter of the villagers. Shujinko walked away and said, "I am no master, and you are no fighter Li Mei."

When I was on the ground, I tried not to hold my crotch, but I did speak the words, "Haven't you heard of not hitting below the belt?" Shujinko turned around angrily and sternly said, "Do not think for a second that this Deadly Alliance will not cheat to win!"

He then told me, "Li Mei, now get up and attack me!" So I slowly stood up and felt the eyes of the villagers upon me. The men were glancing at more than my pain. The women were still smiling and wincing from where I had been kicked.

With a rush of speed, I slapped down Shujinko, "Mi" punched him in the side, "Zong" threw my hand at his waist, "Mi" and finally slammed my foot into his crotch, "Zong you old bastard!"

His body was lifted off the ground from my kick and he landed down on his knees with a light puff of dust. There were cheers from the villagers, followed by my screams, "I will defeat the deadly alliance and free these people, my people," I looked down to my opponent, "and even your people Shujinko!"

He coughed and spit to the ground, while I faced my crowd. That is when I saw him. Outside of the fence of bamboo was Quilan; The butcher boy that I had seen every day and left in prison.

Quilan was looking in at me with a smile. I almost melted right there as the villagers began to strangely look at me, then look to see who I smiled at.

My beautiful view was disrupted though, by Shujinko who said from behind me, "There is one more thing that Master Bo Rai Cho taught me that you should know."

I was barely there mentally when I looked back to Shujinko and said, "Wha?" The old man spun his body in the air and his foot was thrown up into the air. My chin was under his foot and brutally kicked by a man in sandals.

My dirty body crumpled to the ground with none of the villagers catching me. I was out, but I remember the pain of waking up.

When I stirred my body, I embarrassingly asked, "Quilan?" An old voice asked, "Did I kick you that hard?" He then told me, "It is Shujinko and you will not forget that name will you?"

"I saw someone outside the fence," I tried to explain, "He was looking in." Shujinko offered me his hand and asked, "Who was looking in?" "Someone that I know," my voice said as I winced in pain.

Once I was up to my feet, Shujinko looked out through the bamboo fence with me. I was still doubled over and Shujinko wondered, "Is that him?"

There was a man out there, but I could barely see with the sun going down. I thought that I saw the old miser that had been watering exotic flowers at Shang Tsung's palace. He was slowly walking away with a cane in hand.

"No, that's not him," I told Shujinko, who replied, "Good, that man is even older than I am." I pondered, "Looks like the gardener." Shujinko wondered, "Who?" "Nothing," I told him.

When I caught my breath, I took a look over the villagers and the pen itself. Shujinko told me, "I am going to get help." "What?" I wondered, "You cannot. Remember what Kano said! They will kill children if you leave!"

Shujinko told me, "I do not want to spend my days in here and waste the tournament in here when I am in my prime." He then revealed one of the broken pieces of bamboo to me; it was a long sturdy piece.

I could only ask him, "Are you going to fight your way out?" He readied the bamboo in his hands and looked toward the fence. Then he told me, "We may not have to battle the deadly alliance alone."

Shujinko walked back further from the fence with his bamboo in hand. He reassured me, "When you were out, I realized that there is a man that can bring chaos to order, his name is Hotarou."

Then the old man raced toward the bamboo fence with his chute of bamboo. He screamed, "He can help!" The pole was then driven into the rock ground and Shojinko catapulted himself up and over the bamboo fence to the outside.


	16. Chapter 15: The Portal and the Amulet

CHAPTER 15: THE PORTAL AND THE AMULET

CHAPTER 15: THE PORTAL AND THE AMULET

As the sun began to rise across a red horizon behind us, the villagers and I were forced to walk across the barbaric wasteland. We were chained together at the neck in two single file lines. Kano was at the head of the pack with a smirk with a small Tarkatan army around us.

I am sure that his red eye glowed in the long shadow that blocked out his face. However, I could not see it, because I was behind him, first in line. He kept me close.

When we left the village of Sun Do this morning, we had to pass terrifying markers. The markers were skins of children that flapped on crosses from the previous night that was so horrible, I am not even going to give any detail.

Kano was silent after a rage this morning when he had discovered that Shujinko had escaped. I was silent too, consumed in my thoughts.

My thoughts focused on the old miser at the foot of the grand palace. He tended to the garden full of exotic plants.

Then from there I remembered the view beyond the golden lions that lined the gorgeous courtyard. It was a view of a plateau covered in fog.

My people have called that plateau the gateway to the heavens, because of the fact that it was a plateau covered in clouds. Elders would spin stories of what was up there. A few claimed that they had seen it with their own eyes in their youth.

They said that within the fog is a structure of four pillars that meet in an X. They almost meet in the center at least. There is a gap where the pillars would cross or merge.

Kano interrupted my thoughts and told me with a whisper, "It won't be long now love." Instead of answering him, I kept my silence and continued with my thoughts.

Next to the gateway, I remember seeing a building; A place that had not been fully constructed.

The one eyed man spoke again, "Mortal Kombat." My thoughts were then broken and I was snapped back into the reality of Kano leading us.

He quickened the pace and threatened, "Slow down and the Tarkatans behead you and lighten the load!"

Kano is a horrifying man with a bald head, just like his Tarkatan friends. However, Tarkatans are always hairless, Kano just had inferior genetics.

Our caravan quickened its pace. That was until someone tripped and fell. The entire line was jerked to a stop. The woman that had fallen was sliced in half by the Tarkatans.

If that was not enough, because she was still alive, they gruesomely cut her head from the chain. Her eyes stayed open as her head rolled to a stop.

The sight became more disturbing as a Tarkatan appeared from no where and kicked the head over the line of people. Another Tarkatan sprang up and roared right in my face with his drool seeping from his lower lip.

It gave me quite a fright, but Kano yanked the chain and pulled me forward. He then told me, "Don't slow down pretty."

A moment later we came upon a vision of a plateau that was red from the dawning sun. As we continued to approach it, the sky turned from red to its standard shade of purple.

Next to the plateau was a stream of green light that beamed into the sky. It was the palace that I had been thrown out of, only to get brought back.

Kano ordered, "Cut her free! The others are slaves." He then stared at me and said, "This one's a fighter." A smile overcame his face and his mechanical red eye focused on me.

The smile ended after the tether was cut and I was unchained from the pack. Kano even told me, "Don't try to run, this is for glory." In distain, I told him, "Maybe for you." "No," he said, "For me it's for the money."

With heavy breathing, he hoofed forward with a grip on my arm. Apart from the people and the pack of Tarkatans I told him, "Face me." We still headed toward the plateau, and with a laugh, he shifted his head and asked, "What?"

He then told me, "You're in no condition, and I could easily burn my name into your flesh right now." I could only wonder, "So do it." He kept a quick pace and my arm as he told me, "I do not want to get fed to Quan Chi's oni." He then added, "He has big plans for you little girl."

The obvious question was asked, "What are they?" "He already told you," said Kano, "You're going to compete." After a pause, he added, "And probably lose!" His laughter then slowly built to a peak as his mouth continued to open.

After a bit longer, we came to the foot of the plateau and the rickety staircase at the bottom. Kano told me, "You'll climb these stairs." I turned to go up the stairs and quipped, "So you can have a look right?" "I could have everything that I want," he told me, but I pondered, "Because Quan Chi wants me?"

We continued up the stairs as Kano told me, "It's not him that wants you love."

The wooden staircase scaled along the wall of the plateau, held up by thin supports. I kept close to the rock wall of the plateau to keep from falling over the edge when the winds blew.

It took quite some time to climb the wooden staircase to the top, but as my vision focused over the top it was incredible. There were thousands of people building a mighty fortress.

I was stuck in awe and my pace halted on the staircase. There were people on every tier of the fortress, pushing heavy stones and getting whipped by an Outworld army.

The fortress itself had been built beneath of the gateway to the heavens. I could see the four pillars extending up from a part of the fortress.

When I turned to ask Kano why they've done this, he was not there. Instead it was a man in a regal red garb, with gold trim. He had flowing long hair and a long goatee that was braided at the sides.

He ordered me to, "Get up the stairs!" I asked him, "Who are you?" "I'm the man that Quan Chi wants you to kill," he said without a smile, before he told me, "Now get up the stairs."

In fear I asked, "So you can throw me off the plateau?" Instead of climbing he wondered, "Now why would I do that?" He shoved me up the stairs.

Once we were at the top, I could see a staircase of stone that lead up the side of the fortress. The staircase leads to the gateway to the heavens.

I wondered, "Where is Kano?" He then replied, "Kano has been in this fortress all this time where I posted him."

Once we reached the top of the staircase, we had found Quan Chi with his back to us. Above him was an orb that glowed light amongst the fog that surrounded us.

On the platform of the gateway to the heavens I had an incredibly frightening view. On the other side of the plateau was a dark sea with a thunderstorm over it. Even in the daytime, the sea was dark and frightening.

Lightning cracked the dark sky with light. In the bits of light, I could see a ship sailing toward the plateau.

Quan Chi had his back to us originally, but he soon turned around. He took a step forward and greeted us, "Ah Kano, I see that you've brought her safe and sound."

When I looked over, I was indeed standing next to Kano once again. The two faced man gripped my neck and whispered in my ear, "Don't tell him our little secret eh?"

Kano then told Quan Chi, "I've brought her, but not in mint condition." He looked me over and said, "This cherry has never been in mint condition."

The white skinned Quan Chi stepped forward and said, "You're about to see what no one else has seen." I could only wonder, "See you get a tan?" He laughed and tilted his head back, but came to focus on me and said, "I'm going to open this portal and invite all of the combatants into this tournament."

He then grandly turned around and gave a board waving gesture with his arm, "Anyone that thinks they can defeat us can enter this tournament. It is no longer Earth's greatest warrior, or Outworld's champion. Anyone willing to step through this portal within the next two days can participate or of course like you my dear, any bum off the street."

Quan Chi looked at me, and flared one of his hairless eyebrows. He then asked Kano, "She's still in her sleepwear. Kano get this poor girl something more suitable to fight in." The white faced Quan Chi then turned around and uttered, "Or at least get her some pants to cover her bare ass."

As he chanted something, I looked up to the swirl of clouds above us. They were converging directly above the gap between the four pillars that made up the gateway.

Within the gap was now a large orb that glowed and gave off light.

Quan Chi took an amulet from his garb and raised it toward the orb over head. The amulet was circular, made of gold and had a square within the circle. Inside of the square was a brilliant green gem.

The square shape within the amulet began to slide around the circle. Then the green gem radiated light and beamed to the orb above us.

Clouds scattered, and the mist around the portal blew away. Thunder clapped along the sea next to the plateau.

Then the sky turned a blinding white for a flash. Within a volt of electricity appeared a woman.

She quivered and trembled in a ball, perhaps due to the lightening that had just brought her there. Once she stopped her quivers, she sprawled out and stretched under the orb of light. It was as if she was basking in the light.


	17. Chapter 16: Sareena?

CHAPTER 16: SAREENA

CHAPTER 16: SAREENA?

The woman lounged on the ground and took on a pose, "Have I been missed?" Quan Chi raised his hairless eyebrow and said, "I have moved on to bigger and better things." "So have I," she boldly uttered as she stood up.

In her high heeled boots was a pair of sais. Her forearms were covered by long black gloves and her body was tattooed with black and scarred from previous battles. Even her eyes had black tattoos around them, much like General Reiko had.

Quan Chi folded his arms behind him and looked her over as he said, "I see that you have your human form back." "No thanks to your master!" she shouted only to hear Quan Chi tell her in a ruthless tone, "I have no master now." "And either do I," she quipped.

"Walk away," he told her, "Prepare for the tournament."

The woman proceeded to strut right past me. Her short black hair had a streak of white in it near her face. As she crossed my path, she uttered, "I hope she's my first opponent."

Quan Chi wondered, "Oh?" Then with a smirk he added, "She will be."

She turned to me, bit one of her nails and with her cold dead eyes said, "I look forward to it." Then she put her hands behind the tiny skirt she wore and pulled out a hand full of small throwing daggers.

With haste, she turned and threw four of the daggers. Each one landed in the pillars that created the gateway. She then told me, "Go pick them out of the pillars, you'll need them when the tournament begins."

She turned around, and quietly said, "See ya." She walked away down the stone staircase.

Quan Chi was obviously amused, and he told Kano, "Take her to her quarters!" He then boldly replied, "I got no problem taking this little Philly to the bedroom."

The two of us followed the mysterious woman down the stairs to the rock of the plateau. It was at that point that Kano appeared; the real Kano.

He asked, "So did you get her good did ya boss?" They both laughed in their maniacal way; Twin antagonists that were a thorn in each of my sides.

The real Kano took over as he was told, "Take her to my palace and find her a room and some suitable attire to fight in."

Later that night, I had to opportunity to meet my opponent for the tournament. We had both been in Shang Tsung's grand dining hall. A place decorated with paintings, snakes made out of gold and tables made of trees from the living forest.

She and I glanced across from one another. She sat at her table and I sat at my own. The people in front of the two of us had taken up and left the area, leaving the two of us to glair at one another.

After a moment, she finished with her food, and came to me. Instead of going around the large table, she confidently walked across the top of the table and hopped gently to the stone floor.

She uttered, "You and I have the same goal." I rebutted, "I do not think so." "You and I," she said, "Are here to win." "Win or lose," I told her, "I am here to free my people."

The woman questioned, "Then why are you here? Go to Shang Tsung's prison and free them." I put down my food as she sat down beside me.

Then I told her, "They would only hunt us down and capture my people again. They need to be stopped." She questioned again, "So you're going to kill them." "Without hesitation," I replied.

She almost pet my hair and said, "Good girl." I refused to let her get near me and told her, "Don't touch me." The woman pulled her hand away as she informed me, "You do not have to be in a tournament to kill a man." Without a smile she then added, "When you are a woman."

"Alright, you're in my space," I told her, "Now get back." "You can assassinate him," she told me, only to hear me wonder, "How can I kill a man that I haven't even seen?" I elaborated, "Shang Tsung enslaved my people, and I'm here to kill him."

She questioned, "Shang Tsung?" Then she politely closed her eyes and smelled the air, "I can smell him." When she gently opened her eyes again, she told me, "He is here amongst the fighters in disguise."

I could only tell her, "I don't know who you are, but you're creeping me out."

With a slight gyration and a slow twirl of her arm, she told me, "I am Sareena." "I can tell," I retorted, "You are very serine but not beautiful." She calmly told me, "This body is beautiful." Then she bit her black nail and said, "You have not seen my other body."

She elaborated, "You do not see that I am a demon like Shang Tsung." With the tilt of her head ever so slightly, she told me, "This is not my true form. Shang Tsung does not show his true form either."

After a glance away from me, she said with a strange quiver, "I can smell where he hides." When she turned her vacant gaze to me, she added, "We are both here because Quan Chi is using us."

I almost had a smirk when I said, "Like all men use women?" "No," she said politely, "He is using us," and she got closer to say, "To kill Shang Tsung."

She would pause and look at my face, but her eyes were still dead. Sareena spoke again, "You were standing next to him earlier today."

She kept her face lose to mine and traced a few inches away from my face as she told me, "Would you give up your face to save your people?" "What?" I screamed with a shriek before I barked, "Get away from me!"

"No," she said quietly, "Give it to me." With a whisper, she added, "Your face."

Instead of flipping out, I went and sat somewhere else. Sareena followed me and sat next to me and explained, "Lord Shinnok took away my human face for my numerous failures." She whispered and told me, "Beauty and youth means a lot to an ageless demon."

I harshly told her, "We are opponents, not friends, now get away from me Sareena!" With a whisper she almost put her hand on my thigh and said in a hush tone, "We're not enemies, we're friends."

The words came from my mouth, "Last I recall, Quan Chi told me that we were foes." Her hand tried to caress my hair again as she told me, "My former master plays us against one another to keep from knowing that he wants us to kill his ally."

With some expression in her brow, she almost pleaded a statement, "You are to face Kano!" She shook her head and added, "Not me! If I would kill you, I would steal your face."

Sareena elaborated, "Quan Chi would never play us against each other, and we are what assurance that he becomes the sole emperor of Out World." With the shake of her head, and an violent tone, she glared across the room and said, "But I won't let him. No! I will kill him with these black finger nails."

After that was said, she dragged her nails across my thigh. I threw my chair behind me and stood up in a rage.

She pleaded, "Kano, you fight Kano!" With a hiss she lashed her attention to Kano at the head table and said, "Coward wishes to fight you. I heard him ask Shang Tsung earlier to fight you." With an intense stare, she continued, "He avoids killing his blonde haired love!" After she turned to me and added, "And denies me your face."

I looked to Kano and the room full of fighters that looked at us. That was until Sareena told me, "Sit down please." Her hand took a chair and placed it next to me as she asked, "Will you kill Quan Chi?"

At the head table sat three men, Quan Chi, Shang Tsung and Kano. The two emperors sat on twin thrones of gold, on a table just for them, Kano and others ate below them at a table slightly lower.

With a stare across the room, I told Sareena, "I will kill them both." She took another posture to look up at me from below and told me, "Then let me help you."

I questioned her logic, "Why would you help me when we may meet in the tournament?" "Because I want to ensure," she started to say, "That I never go back to my previous form as a demon." She looked away and said, "I am not going back to that life."

"Here," she said as she reached into her boots. Sareena then pulled out her pair of sais and gave them to me and said, "You will need these to counteract Kano's butterfly blades."

I took them both in my hands while I stood there over her. She shook her head and stood up, before she told me, "I need to go somewhere."

With her sais in hand, I wondered, "Where are you going?" She quietly looked at me and said, "I trust you to kill Quan Chi for me and I will kill the master that had taken my human form."

After that was said, she walked backward away from me and uttered, "Keep your face clean for me. I will come for it when Lord Shinnok is dead."

Sareena then disappeared into the crowd of fighters. Some watched her pass by them, or at least watched parts of her body as she passed by them. I sat down in my seat and uttered, "Who are these freaks and why do they always come to me?"

I looked to the left side of me to see one of the fighters dressed in blue garb. His body was pale and he had a huge scar over his right eye. Frost was collecting in his hair and his bare arms were generating a mist, because he was so cold.

With a nasty tone I told him, "You're cold." I stood back up and said, "If any of you freaks need me, I'm going to bed."

In the distance at the head table, I heard Kano, "Get your rest girl. I'll have something waiting for you when you wake up." He said that while looking at one of his knives, before he picked his teeth with the blade.


	18. Chapter 17: Mortal Kombat

CHAPTER 16: MORTAL KOMBAT

CHAPTER 16: MORTAL KOMBAT

When I woke up the next morning in my grand bed; I looked over to see that I was next to an outfit hand picked by Kano. The color of the attire was a deep purple. It was arranged as if it would be on my body. The top was clasped with a golden ring. Then a long chain leads its way down to the bottom that would be around my waist.

There were boots on the floor, long boots made of silk and leather. They were a matching purple.

On top of the attire was a note on a worn sheet of paper. I reached over with my hand, and looked at the note.

In record time I found myself to where the note had told me to go. The note had guided me to pier that extended off into the black sea that I had seen the previous day.

Thunder rumbled and lightning coursed through the sky even in the morning. I boarded the ship without hesitation to meet my opponent.

The ship soon mysteriously left the pier without a crew on board. The ship was empty. There were only lanterns that hung off of the cabins and the sides of the ship.

Eventually the ship had slowly maneuvered itself further into the black sea. The thunder and lightning intensified along with the rain, so I quickly found myself below deck.

I ran down stairs ready to fight, only to find that I was on a platform overlooking a large empty cargo hold. There were only a few crates in the hold.

The platform itself was the rear of the ship, complete with windows to watch the rough, choppy sea outside.

The weight of the golden ring and chain weighed down my top and pulled the top inward and tighter. It was the only way I would stay in I suppose.

Wondering where my opponent was, I went over to the railing of the platform. I grasped the wooden rail and yelled out, "Show yourself and fight!"

I heard a slightly sadistic voice from behind me, "Prepare yourself pretty; pretty girl."

When I turned around there was the shadow of darkness from the staircase I had just come down. I called out again, "Come on out and fight me Kano!"

The only sound was the pound of hard rain on the wooden planks above my head as I readied myself. The darkness called to me and I slowly approached the staircase that I had just come down.

Closer I came to the darkness, ready for Kano to leap out. Instead, a bolt of lightning lit up the darkness to reveal that there was nothing there. It was merely a staircase that leads upward.

However, another bolt of lightning revealed Kano coiled up in one of the windows at the stern of the ship. His black shadow was illuminated from the lightning outside. I could see the red light of his eye along with a red light on his attire.

He slowly turned his head and said, "It's a beautiful morning out; isn't it?" I quipped, "If this is beauty to you, then you're more twisted than I thought."

Kano laughed in his accented voice and told me, "No little girl, you bleeding and begging for mercy is beauty to me."

He put his foot on the deck and poised himself, before he pulled his knife from his boot and asked, "I came prepared love."

After he pulled out the blade, and looked at it in the darkness, he asked, "Did you?"

I drew both sais from my expensive and stylish boots before I told him, "I'm prepared to win." "No," he laughed as he continued to look at the knife, "I asked if you came prepared!"

When he said that, I didn't know what he meant, but from out of the shadows came the real Kano. He came with his own knives. His blades were out in full force as the first sharp steel knife went passed my face.

Kano attacked from the shadows. He unleashed a flurry of dizzying blade attacks that I dodged and defended with my sais.

The metal of our weapons clashed and clanged until his knives were caught in the pits of the forking sais. With us that close to one another, he exclaimed, "I've been waiting for this!"

I kicked him back away from me to see him snarl in a flash of lightning behind him. He yelled, "I'm not gonna let you live from this pretty; pretty girl!"

In a fit of confidence, I sternly said, "Just try it!" He crossed his knives, before he opened his arms to create a sound. That was followed by the laser from his eye that beamed across the platform toward me.

The red light lit up the entire darkened area as I rolled for cover. The laser had missed, but when it turned off, Kano called out, "I can see you in the dark!" To which then I called out, "Then you should have had better aim!"

I was hidden behind one of the crates as Kano scanned the area for me. He calmly and sadistically said, "Aw come on pretty girl," to which he continued the search before adding, "Don't make me find you."

With that said, he leapt up onto the crates that I hid behind. "Ah ha!" he screamed out as he came down with both of his knives.

While he may have been coming down, I was going up, and I jammed my right sai into his mechanical left eye. The force was enough to shake him and he tumbled down off of the crates harshly.

He wailed almost mechanically with the sai still in his eye. Then lightning lit up the area so I could see the horrifying look of Kano's pain. The red eye went dim just as he took hold of the sai.

When I tried to kick the sai further into his skull, he blocked the kick and twisted my foot to make me fall.

The screams intensified as he mustered the strength to pull the sai from his now dead eye. I could see in the lightning that there were bits of metal and gory red blood that came out along with the sai.

I stood up as Kano threw the sai aside and held his eye. He screamed, "Whad ya do to me babe! I can't see!" Without care, I told him, "Open your other eye!"

When he did that, he saw my foot coming back toward his head. I landed one of my kicks directly in his face and it didn't stop there. Again and again I tried to kick him, but he blocked my feet with his hands.

He was on his knees and stepped forward off of them to kick my shins. With my body off balance Kano grabbed my wrists, yanked me forward and kicked me over his body. I went tumbling onto my back, but I rolled back onto my feet.

Kano quickly stepped forward, threw his hip into my body and took me over backward. I landed on my stomach and quickly got up with my feet aimed for his body.

He knew me well and blocked both kicks, before he threw a side kick into my stomach. The kick was so fierce that it broke me through the railing and sent me flying down to the boxes of cargo below.

I was in the cargo hold, stunned and angered that he wasn't dead yet. Kano flew through the air after me when he leapt off of the platform down into the cargo hold.

There were growls that came from him as he tried to stomp my head. I rolled out of the way, but he followed with his feet.

My body collected all of the dirt and dust as I rolled away from his heavy combat boots. Fortunately, because of the glowing red light that he wore in the center of his garb I could still see him.

He grew angry with me, until I swept my feet and knocked his out from under him. He was furious then. He punched the ground, and stood up without a smile.

I had my stance ready for his next attack. With my leg raised into the air and my knee pointed at him, I challenged him.

His posture changed, with one fist pointed toward me and his leg out at an angle. Growls continued to come from his mouth.

There were no growls from me; instead I let out a scream when a body battered into mine. It was a scream of a startling horror. There was a body hung on a long rope that was just floundering around the cargo hold.

The man had been dead for quite some time, but with the rough sea outside, the corpse was free to swirl around. His hair was frazzled and his face was almost chewed down to a skull.

Kano saw that as his moment to attack. He unleashed a pair of punches, a knee and finished with a forward kick into my chest that sent me tumbling to the grate of the deck below us.

He laughed at me and said, "Don't let him scare ya! I'm the one that is gonna eat your heart out baby!"

When I stood up, the corpse on a rope was swung over my way. The corpse came quickly with its head back and its arms swaying.

I saw it coming, so I stepped away from it, only to see it sway back past me and into Kano's grasp again.

Kano told me, "Come on babe, you ain't had a date in a while. Practice those make out skills." He then heaved the corpse my way once again, only to have me bash its face with forearm strikes and a kick that sent it back to Kano.

Without hesitation, Kano pulled a knife from his boot and sliced the corpse off the rope. He looked at the knife and told me, "You didn't think I'd come on board without a backup did you?"

I pulled my remaining sai out of my boot and jumped at him. My boot slugged into his chin, sending him backward. Then my arm extended with the sai and stabbed him in the side.

Kano let out a scream of pain and held his side. He cursed at me as the blood poured out of his side. "Aw screw it," he screamed as he threw his butterfly knife at me.

The knife twirled end over end at me, but I was able to dodge it. However, another corpse behind me was not so lucky. The second corpse on a rope was struck in the chest. Not that he noticed, because he's already dead.

When I turned to face Kano again, he was gone. The lightning lit up the cargo hold to reveal that Kano wasn't there.

That left me wondering where he had gone to, until I saw the staircase out of the cargo hold. I followed up the stairs to the top deck of the ship.

On the outside it still thundered and the black sea raged below us. At the horizon was the red light of the sunrise. The rain poured in buckets from above my head, but because I was hot on the tail of Kano, I did not care.

I screamed out to him, "Where are you hiding Cyclops?" His words belted out in the rain, "Without my eye you can't see me!"

The black sea creatures off the side of the ship caught my attention. Their long black necks protruded from the water and slowly lifted their heads up to see the ship.

The creatures had long jagged teeth, fins on their head and fins that rippled down their necks. Once out of the sea, they each hissed in my direction as lightning made the sky white.

Even with the sky white and blinding, their eyes were still red and quite visible.

Unknown to me, I was being watched by someone other than Kano and the black sea creatures. It was the man at the helm that overlooked the deck of the ship.

Kano flew out of an unlit corner of the ship and twirled through the air end over end. His body bashed into mine and I flew down to my stomach with such force my feet arched backward and almost touched the back of my head.

I slid through the puddles of the rain soaked deck as Kano asked, "Did ya miss me my little darling?" His red eye was dead and hollow with sparks coming off of it, caused by the rain water seeping in.

With some hesitation I slowly tried to stand onto my feet only to have Kano race over and threw a kick toward my head. He greatly missed when I spun my body and kicked out the back of his knee.

Kano landed hard on his back and nipped up quickly. He then growled at me and came forward at me again, throwing his fists, knees, and feet at me.

After his attacks were blocked and dodged, he bashed into my forehead with the metal plate of his forehead. With a stern gaze, he tried to give me his laser eye, but instead I only heard, "Damn!"

I threw my right forearm into his stomach twice and punched him right in his ugly mug; the part of his mug that wasn't made of metal. His body twirled around and he poised himself to fight again.

This time he came at me with a flurry of attacks. His punches were blocked, but his knee slammed into my chin, sending me back.

I was sent back so far that I was now at the railing of the ship. Over my shoulder were the black sea monsters that were looking at their next meal.

They hissed and slowly maneuvered their heads to get ready for a snack.

Kano lunged in with his feet to kick me off of the ship; and he did too. His right leg belted into my side, his left knee followed up into my chest when I was doubled over and he shoved me over the railing.

However, I held onto one of the thin posts that held up the lanterns. My body curled around the wooden post and Kano found it amusing, "Clinging on for dear life!"

My left foot was thrust toward his head as the sea serpents looked closer at me.

The first kick missed, the second kick was blocked, and then it was Kano's turn. He slammed his thick boot into the post and not only shook it, but fractured it.

It looked like I was on my way down off the ship, but when his foot came back a second time, my body wasn't there. I leapt off as his foot snapped through the wooden pole and the lantern fell into the mouth of a dark creature's mouth.

My body flew off and tumbled over the deck. Then when I stood up, I grabbed my remaining sai from my boot and jammed it into Kano's knee.

The sadistic commander screamed in agony again from the three pointed blade that went through his knee to the other side.

As he leaned over to pull it out, his hand slipped off the handle on the enormous amount of blood. He never looked up to me, because he was too concerned with himself.

Then with the thrust of my left foot, I kicked him so hard that my foot literally flew through his side; Maybe even where his kidney was located. Every red chunk of meat that flew out of him was soaked in rain and fell into the water off the port side of the ship.

One of the black sea serpents dove its head into the water to get after the chunks. The other two stayed poised and watched us without any hissing.

Kano reeled in pain as I tore my foot out of his right side. He slumped over to cradle the portion of him that was missing before he said, "Come on, we had some fun times. Have some mercy babe!"

With that said my body sprang forward and my right leg extended to kick Kano in the side of the head. His body was sent end over end backward with him toppling over the rail of the railing behind him.

The sadistic commander plunged into the black water and the two remaining sear creatures immediately dove their heads under the surface. They would find Kano before anyone else would.

When I looked over the deck, I couldn't see anything; not even bubbles. Perhaps it was because of the rain, or perhaps because dead men don't breath.

I had taken a life, but I justified it that it was the sea serpents that took his life. In my mind, I did not revel in my victory as Kano would have done at my defeat. However, he deserved it, and if I had not done it, someone else would have.

My attention to the water began to wane as I heard a slow clap from behind me. A voice told me, "Bravo Li Mei."

After I slowly turned my head I could see a man over the ship's cabin. He had stopped clapping to grab the rail and he told me once again, "Bravo."

I asked him the obvious question, "Who are you?" Instead of getting an answer, I was told, "Many have tried to kill that man you just kicked overboard."

That is when I could see a red light from atop the cabin that overlooked the entire ship. The mysterious man stepped into the light of the lanterns below him.

The plate that covered the left side of his face gleamed in the rain. Thunder rumbled as he told me, "But no one can seem to make him stay dead."

That thunder was followed by lightning to reveal Kano looked over me. I knew who it was, although he had a disguise, so I called out, "Shang Tsung?"

Thunder rumbled again as the red light disappeared and I heard his voice, "That's Emperor Tsung to you peasant." Once again the thunder was followed by lightning that lit up the entire ship to reveal the man that I had seen before.

He was dressed in a red garb with a small hat and had a long black goatee.

I sarcastically asked him, "To what do I owe the honor of your presence." He said with his very regal deep voice, "You should bow when you ask me that."

It was like having a conversation with a shadow, but I continued to ask him, "I want to see your true face." He was merely a shadow and I could only see a bit of his face.

Emperor Tsung asked me, "Now why is that?" The only reason I had was, "To see the face of the man that enslaved my people." His only explanation was, "We are all slaves to someone."

After a moment, he elaborated, "I was a slave to the former emperor who was a slave to the former emperor, and now you will be a slave to me." With a mystique like charm in his voice he added, "Not a slave of labor." His head ducked down further into his own shadow and said with a hush tone, "I desire you Li Mei."

"Everyone does," I quipped, "What makes you so special?" "There are worse things than death," said the emperor, before he elaborated, "I have the power to consume the souls of the dead and defeated to keep my own youth."

The emperor continued, "Willingly give yourself to me as my own personal slave and your people will keep their souls when I work them to death." His voice was seductive and he made me want to believe him as he added, "I promise." The sound of his voice was poetic.

I asked him, "What do I have to do?" "Forfeit the tournament," he answered. "No," I told him, "What do I have to do to shut you up and get off this leaky garbage barge?"

He quickly told me with his sly voice, "Your soul will be mine and your people will be killed for this insult." I argued back, "My people will be freed when I tear you apart."

The shadow that I looked at began to slowly change in shape and size. It grew larger and a voice cackled at me, "You will not even challenge me."

His body changed into a strange figure, no longer bipedal with two arms. He was large, and I could see only parts of his body in the light of the lanterns below him.

With a severe change in his voice, he informed me, "You'll meet your next opponent in the lava shrine underneath of my palace. There you will face my old ally." After a pause, the changed Emperor Tsung added, "He will be a perfect match for your beauty."


	19. Chapter 18: The Lava Shrine

CHAPTER 18: THE LAVA SHRINE

CHAPTER 18: THE LAVA SHRINE

Once I had gotten off the boat, I found my way to Shang Tsung's grand palace. Above the palace was a towering green pillar of energy that emerged from a giant swirl of purple clouds above my head.

I eyed up the courtyard in front of the palace along with the guards in full gear that defended the place. The guards each had padded armor along with long blades at the end of their staffs.

When I waked up to the two that guarded the entrance, they recognized me and stepped aside to let me through.

After I was in the palace, I found my way down into the dungeon again. I went down the long dark winding staircase that took me over the flowing river of lava.

At the bottom of the steps were my people; each one of them was in a cell. Some now shared cells, eight people in one cell. It was getting crowded, proving that the Deadly Alliance had taken over many villages throughout the land.

I heard a familiar voice call out to me, "Li Mei! Is that you?"

When I turned, I looked to see a crowd full of faces that I did not recognize; that was until Dru Quilan emerged from the people that stood next to the cell bars.

He asked, "Has your life of freedom ended?" With a sly smile, I told him, "It won't end until I'm back in class." Quilan's emotional state was rattled and he implored me, "Get us out of here Li Mei!"

The dirty hands of Quilan gripped the bars that separated he and I. Without thinking, I grabbed the bars and inadvertently touched his sweaty hand when I told him, "I'm working on it."

"Well work faster," he said with a, "Please!" I could only reassure him, "Once Shang Tsung is dead at my hands you will all be free." In fact, I was so confident that I raised my voice, "You will all be free when Shang Tsung is dead!"

"That's good," said a voice that I did not recognize, "Now who will kill him when you're dead girl?" I was absolutely insulted and I went down the dark stone walkway to find who had said it.

Within a crowded cell stood a man that I recognized and he spoke up, "I did not shove you in a boat just for you to come back here and die!" He towered over the rest of them and told me his name again, "I am Chan Pau."

"Yes," I told him, "The man that hit me with an oar." He corrected me, "No, that was my little brother Yuen." Next to him was a much smaller man with a file. The man was trying to get through the black bars of the cell that contained him.

With his weasely voice, Yuen Pau told me, "I'm getting us out of here."

A big hand extended through the cell bars and Chan Pau told me, "Sorry about what I just said Li Mei. It's tough to stay positive when we've been in here so long."

I took his big hand and told him, "I'll get you out of here." He gave me a humble, "Thank you." Then I called out, "I'll get you all out of here."

However, there were only groans of misery, pain and anguish that I could hear.

Unfortunately, I had to leave Chan Pau's big hand and continue down the walkway past a hundred miserable faces. Each face was dirty, weathered and stricken with agony.

There was one that shockingly caught me off guard. The eyeless face of Zhang disrupted my attention. The shock was so bad at seeing an eyeless man; I began to topple backward toward the lava.

My arms flailed in circles as I tried to get my balance, but just as I fell backward, a muscular arm reached out and grabbed the chain of my attire. It was Zhang's arm and he said with a gruff voice, "You sure make a lot of noise."

I clutched onto his hand as he yanked his arm back into the cell with my body following. He pulled me close so my body pressed against the bars.

It was a romantic moment, except for the fact that his eyes were hollowed out and not covered. He asked me, "What do you think you're doing back here?"

The words, "I'm looking for the lava shrine," poured from my mouth. He glanced to the bars as if he could see and said, "Let me think about that."

He asked, "Lava shrine right?" I told him, "Lava shrine." With a brief laugh, he said, "You've got a long way to go Li Mei." I looked down the darkened corridor that went into a wall next to the flowing river of lava.

When I tried to pull away, he kept my body close to tell me, "You've got to realize, even when you find it; you've got a long way to go." "So let me go," I told him, "And I'll start walking."

With a harsh tone, his brow lowered when he told me, "Even after you get there, it will just be another challenge waiting for you; followed by another challenge, and another."

He added with his gruff voice, "Be ready for it, because every victory means another challenge that you will have to face. Getting to what you want isn't the end; it's keeping what you want."

"And I want to free everyone," I told him, only to hear him retort, "Even when you kill this Deadly Alliance, there will be another war lord, emperor or fallen god that will always try to conquer this miserable world."

Offended at his comment, I corrected him, "This world is beautiful, and you just can't see it." He kept his clutch on me and turned his hollowed eye sockets to me and barked, "Why can't I see it for what it is; because it's a ravaged dirt ball that needs a great leader to make it a wonderful place."

Zhang continued, "When you defeat the deadly alliance; become a leader and stomp out any evil that threatens peace. Do not rest on your laurels of victory. You must keep the victory and keep the peace!"

I yanked myself from him and knocked his hand away. Once I was away from his grip, I moved my head closer to him and said, "I will do as I please and if everyone else had their way, I would have been stomped out, ravaged and broken when my parents disappeared."

"Listen to me Li Mei," he tried to tell me, but I shunned his theories, "You're not my father, and I will fight until the Deadly Alliance has been defeated. Then life will return to normal."

I raised my voice and yelled, "Life will return to the days before Emperor Kahn! There will be no one to oppress us and we can all do as we please!"

With that said, I turned and walked further down the dark stone path beyond all of the cells. I could hear behind me the words, "You foolish girl."

After more time than I had ever expected, I finally had found the lava shrine. A series of maze like hot tunnels had finally opened up to reveal a bright red chamber.

Where I had entered the chamber looked like the giant mouth of a dragon. Across from the entrance was a staircase that went to a pedestal with a gigantic egg in it. Next to the egg were cloaked defenders with towering spears.

It was surreal, there were lava falls, along with a circular area made of stone that extended from the entrance to the egg. Just as I stepped in, the cloaked defenders noticed me and pointed their spears toward me.

I told them, "I don't want your egg!" Besides that, the egg was much taller than me, even with my arms in the air, the egg was much taller.

There was something that flowed near me in the lava. It was what looked like metal plates of armor. However, metal would have been eaten away by the immensely hot lava. The armor was brownish and the lava under the armor even had a strange form.

I laugh about this, but when I turned my head to look back at the egg, a head probably popped out of the lava under the armor.

After a moment of mentally soaking in the lava chamber, I took a step away from the entrance and into the center. There was no one there that looked like I should be fighting them. The defenders had an egg to protect. Other than them, there was no one there.

A voice from behind me spoke with a hiss in its voice, "Reptile; he has a no home." My attention was drawn to the top of the entrance that I had just come through.

The entryway itself, designed like a dragon's head had a scaled man on top of it. His body was green and had a red hue in the light of the lava that flowed through the chamber.

His garb was black and green, behind him was a very long tail with blades as plates down his back.

He spoke again with his tongue twitching out of his mouth, "No master. He has a no master." The hisses came after each S and at the end of each statement.

The reptile spoke again, "No lair to call his own." The man creature hugged onto the nose of the dragon with his entire body and hissed, "Last of his kind."

He seemed almost angry as he dug his claws into the rock entrance. The creature then slid its green body off of the entry way, and tumbled down to his feet to block the entrance.

I approached him without a fighting stance and I had to jump back when he let out a ferocious roar my direction. His teeth oozed green saliva and his tongue forked out beyond his jaw.

With his roar, he took an aggressive posture, before he pulled in his head and tucked it next to his arm. He choked up more green saliva that I noticed burnt a hole in the solid rock that we stood on.

He was obviously distraught and in anguish. However, I was there to fight him. Instead of attacking me, he hissed again, "Fooled me."

I was only left to ask, "Who?" The creature continued to cough up acidic saliva before he replied, "She did!"

Without changing my non threatening stance, I looked around. There was no woman there, but me, so I told him, "What woman?"

Instead of getting an answer, I was told by the reptile, "Reptile was once a man like she is a woman." My mistake at that point was getting close to ask, "What woman?"

He flew into a vicious rage and shoved me away with a double claw strike. My body flew as if it was being dragged by some unknown force and I dropped to my stomach across the chamber. That was just before I would have fallen into the lava.

The reptile curled in a tight ball and rolled my direction with his blade like scales pointed outward. Just as he would have sliced into me, he sprang up and attacked me with his clawed hands.

He attacked and lunged with his claws, which for a reptile he sure fought with tiger claws. The attack continued until I kicked him in the head and his body spun to the side.

However, the creature was undaunted, because he merely took a different posture. Smaller and more compact as if he was hurt, but there is nothing that can hurt something covered with scales.

Reptile merely huddled with his elbows pointed outward and his body scrunched down. When I raised my foot and came close to him for another attack, he cowered down in fear and hid his head.

I fell for it and took pity on him, but he lunged forward and connected with the point of his elbow three times in my stomach. He then bashed me into the air with his tail and punched me twice more before I hit the ground.

My body rolled to evade any more attacks and I ended up even closer to the lava. Reptile felt aggressive, so once again he charged forward at me, and dove into a ball to bowl his way at me.

When he was about to reach me, I side stepped his attack and flung my foot out to kick him. However, he uncurled his body, bent over backward and avoided my kick.

My other leg followed up with a kick as I twirled my body. That kick was ducked and my third kick to his body was caught by the scaled creature.

I could feel his claws gently holding onto my boot. My barely covered thigh was held in the pit of his arm and I could feel his scales on my delicate skin.

He began to cough again, but this time it was more violent. A heap of green ooze bellowed out of his mouth and he tried to dump it all on me.

I hopped backward on one foot to avoid the giant puddle of acid as I told him, "I don't swing that way!" The acid made the ground steam a green cloud as it ate away at the rock.

He twirled his body around and clubbed me with his bare foot, which sent me spinning away. At least I didn't fall in the puddle of acid.

Instead, Reptile had more acid for me, when he drew his head back and spit forth a giant glob of acid that sprayed across the room. I rolled out of the way, and he threw his head back again to ready himself.

His head came forward and sent another glob of acid in my direction. This time it hit a rock formation over the lava behind me. The glob of acid splattered and sent the acidic green ooze in dozens of places.

That is the point where he reached into his sheath and pulled out the ugliest looking jagged blade that I had ever seen. It was a sword that did not have a straight edge, instead it had plenty of large saw like teeth and something that looked like a hook near the top of the blade.

The reptile laughed and hunched his body over as he coughed. He then told me, "She gave it to him."

That was a nice deadly gift he had, and he began to use it to demonstrate to me his skills. He whirled his body around, with the rather long blade extended. It was beautifully terrifying, a lizard man with a jagged sword that threatened my life.

After his whirls had stopped he stood poised and ready for my attack. Instead I demonstrated my own skills to him.

I took a less aggressive pose, threw my hands out as a punching combination, followed by a few kicks. My flurry of an exhibition ended with a summersault kick forward that landed me kneeling. My arms spread out and I threw up my head to look at him again.

He was not impressed, because he lunged forward with his jagged blade. His hand twirled the blade in a giant circle as he came forward. He spun his reptilian body in a beautiful display of sword and deadly tail.

I ducked under the blade that would have sliced off my head, and leapt backward to avoid his tail that would have sliced me just as well. Then I rolled my body passed the whirl of his sword that came at me vertically.

He quickly followed my roll and tried to bite into me, but he was too late. I heard his teeth clamp shut, and he continued to follow after me with his sword, trying to slice me on the hot ground.

While the long blade may have been deadly and beautiful to watch, it was not that fast. The reptile then counter acted my rolls by sweeping his low blade with an attack that came so close I think some of my hair is missing because of it.

I leapt and continued to dodge the blade, but when I finally connected with a punch to his side, he poised his body with his sword back. Then he lunged forward with the blade fully extended my way and tried to impale me.

However, like all of his other bladed attacks, he missed and his sword ended up under a pouring flow of lava. When he retracted the blade, he was so sad over it.

The creature tried to whirl the glowing red blade to get the lava off of it, but it only made things worse; worse for me, not the blade. Chunks of super heated rock flew off the blade and splattered everywhere.

The ground had little globs of red glowing lava on it, and so did the rock formations that cluttered the chamber.

Reptile did not continue to attack me; instead he cowered with his back to me and cradled his sword.

When I stood up, his posture grew tighter and he threw his sword to the side. To make things even stranger, he then curled in a ball and rolled away from me until he was almost at the stairs in front of the egg. It is there where Reptile lost momentum, and stopped like a koin making a circle on its side.

He flumped down in front of the giant egg that towered over the room and I was left to step forward toward him. I asked in a gentle voice like you would ask a child, "Are you hiding?"

There was no answer, and he was not doing a very good job of hiding, so I continued to approach the ball of bladed green scales.

My guard was down as the reptile remained in a ball. The only sounds came from the flow of lava that poured down from holes in the walls.

Suddenly, the reptile lunged his body and sprang forward at me with a pounce. He angrily tried to tear into my flesh with his claws, but I held his wrists and waited for his anger to subside.

Even with his wrists in my hands, his tail became a vicious weapon. The tail lashed forward and tried to impale my head. He purposely aimed it at me and tried to stab me again. Each time my head bobbed out of the way, until I was forced to shove him away from me.

He came at me again with all of his anger and rage. The reptile threw his foot at my head and swept his leg around. While I ducked the kick, his tail came like a whip and battered me over backward to the hot ground.

I slowly stood up, and he attacked me with palm thrusts and his claws extended. He scratched my body, and clawed my shoulders, before he smashed his palms into my heart.

The force was enough to propel me across the chamber once again. He was quick to follow and leapt into the air with his claws extended to pounce on me.

With him on my body, he used his tail again and his scales grazed my arm and sliced me worse than Kano's knife ever did. His claws were on my shoulders and he roared at his eminent victory, just before he tried to bite off my head.

I was able to kick him off of me and fling him to the ground. He quickly rolled to his feet, and leapt backward onto one of the rock formations.

As he was perched on the formation, he apologized, "Reptile is sorry; thought you were someone else." With a long hiss in his voice, he told me, "Someone mean." He had a vaporous hiss in his throat as he said mean.

From beyond the rock formation that Reptile was perched on, I could see what looked like a head and arm swell up from the lava pool. The arm had darkened metal on it, but had no fingers.

Reptile coiled his body in an angle that should not have been possible to look at what I saw. He hissed at the long arm that came out of the lava and the head that formed.

That is when I looked to notice that Reptile was on a rock formation right next to the giant egg. The two cloaked guards advanced with their spears and a figure rose from the lava.

The reptilian creature turned to me and hissed with a shout, "Pretty must run!" Then he turned to the two guards and hissed as they had their spear blades pointed at him.

Meanwhile, the figure that emerged from the lava was covered in fire and whaled as it crawled on its hands out of the glowing lava. The figure's head fell off of its body in a giant flaming glob, only for a new head to form out of its back.

It was a horrifying display. Then as it continued to climb out, the figure's left arm was stuck to the ground, where it was then ripped off of its shoulder.

That did not stop the figure, because it continued to pull itself out from the lava and reformed a new arm as it whaled from its lava birth.

Reptile lunged off of the rock formation and dug his claws into the head of one of the cloaked guards. The guard's cries of pain echoed through the chamber, while the other guard had his body lanced by Reptile's tail.

After lancing the guard, the reptilian creature stayed on top of the other guard and lashed his tongue out. It was a terrible way to die, as Reptile's tongue brought the guard's head into his open jaws.

The fact that Reptile's jaws could detach to eat an entire head was incredible. With the guard's head entirely in Reptile's stomach, he coughed up acidic vomit on the other screaming guard.

Meanwhile, the figure made of lava had completely crawled out of the lava and began to rearrange its body from a crawl to a stand. He did not stand up as a normal man would; his body reformed itself so he would be standing. Almost as if he rose out of a pool of himself.

The figure's head burnt on fire and he had a chain wrapped around its arm. I could see his fingers begin to form out of the globs that were its arms. Then a face slowly appeared with two yellow eyes as Reptile ravenously ate the guard beneath of him.

Reptile perked up and noticed the red hot man of lava staring at him. There was still a distance between them, with Reptile up on the staircase and the man of lava down on the chamber floor.

The man of lava took a fighting stance as the green reptile took a posture on all fours and hissed in fear.


	20. Chapter 19: Challenge of Survival

CHAPTER 19: CHALLENGE OF SURVIVAL

CHAPTER 19: CHALLENGE OF SURVIVAL

I stood in the distance and looked to the two of them as they readied for battle. Reptile coiled his body to strike and wrapped his body with his tail for protection. His blade like scales that went down his spine protruded.

The man made of red lava charged up the staircase. Suddenly the reptilian creature whirled his body and used his tail like a saw blade.

While the scales might be like large blades, that did little to harm a man made of lava. Instead Reptile hissed and screeched from the pain of his taller tail scales being burnt off of him.

The burning man leapt into the air and flopped down onto Reptile. The chamber echoed with screeches of pain as the red man tried to cover my opponent.

Reptile was no match, nor did the screeches stop the attack. Green claws scratched at the stairs as the reptile tried to escape the tight clutches of a lava man.

From over their heads I could see a crack form in the giant egg. It made a sound and bits of shell crumbled to the ground next to them.

The burning man held Reptile tighter and tighter, until finally the screeches of pain stopped. Reptile's body was badly burnt, but the strange guardian never stopped smothering him.

Soon after the screeches had subsided, the reptile's claws stopped scratching at the stone. I muttered the words, "Victory via interference."

That is when the liquid like head of the lava man seeped down into his shoulders. Then the head of the lava man emerged from his fluid back.

The red man's focus was now on me, being that I was the only person left alive in the chamber. His face pointed to me and his shoulders and arms clung the ground aimed at me.

It was a strange posture and the red man's legs clung to the hot floor. The legs were stuck and he moaned as new limbs formed out of his shoulders.

At first, it looked as if the lava creature had four arms, but he pushed his body off the ground so two arms could become legs. His fluid body contorted and spun around as his legs grew longer to form his body.

Then he stood up, moaning in pain. His head had no eyes or mouth, because they had not formed yet.

Once he was on his feet he began to stumble forward and grab onto rock formations that littered the room. I trembled in fear as he lurched forward quite a distance away.

After his head had formed a face, he charged forward with a ghastly scream. His feet pounded the ground and left globs of bright lava behind.

Then as he raced forward he was jerked back by a chain that was wrapped around one of his wrists. It was a violent motion that sent some lava splattering forward from the inertia.

The egg behind him began to crack even more. This time the crack went from the top to the center of the egg with little bits of shell falling from the side. I couldn't see inside of the egg, but I did not want to see what other beast, creature or deadly foe would spring forth.

The man made of flaming lava turned to his chain and began to yank his arm forward to get his arm free. At that point his mouth opened wide and whaled to reveal the yellow magma within his core.

His mouth continued to open greatly until his mouth covered the top of his head and a new head formed out of the yellow magma. Much like how a mask is pulled off to reveal a face.

This face was yellow and vague with no discernable features to it.

With each jerk of the chain, rocks began to tumble down from the ceiling. There were rumbles from above as the egg cracked even more at the center.

After three violent jerks, the burning man's arm completely tore off and began to burn the rock ground beneath of it with a log of lava.

He felt the shoulder of his missing arm, and amidst his ghastly moaning, a new arm began to form from the stump.

With the force that the man had tried to rip the chain from the formation, it had started a chain reaction. Rocks began to fall from the ceiling. Lava began to pour out from the ceiling and walls.

The rocks that fell were originally small, but grew larger and larger. I had ducked under the entryway to watch the man of lava dodge rocks.

He did a good enough job of dodging rocks until a giant stalactite fell and crushed him. The man made of lava exploded into a pile of lava beneath the large stalactite. The falling rock itself had shattered upon the impact of the ground.

I had a moment to breath, even with bits of the ceiling crumbling and lava slowly filling the chamber. I was safe for the moment.

As for the completely obliterated man made of lava; he slowly began to reform. The lava oozed and pulled itself together around the large stalactite.

Eventually the lava climbed up the rock and either engulfed it or burnt it into nothing. Whatever it was, it had made the man of lava even larger.

His body was larger, and he had the top of the stalactite stuck to his back. He began to drag the large rock, until his body tore from it and his mouth howled from the pain.

At that point I had turned around and ran into the tunnels that had brought me to the lava shrine.

From behind me I could hear the horrific howls from the lava man. That was followed by a tremendously blight light that flooded the tunnel in white. It was no longer dark, but instead blinding.

I heard a screech afterward from a forked tongue. The light stayed bright for quite a bit of time, before it subsided, revealing the red monster behind me.

It tried to bash me with one of its hot arms, but ended up stuck to the wall. My eyes were still a bit blind; I could only see the differences in light as I ran away from the monster.

My body did not stop on my trek back through the system of tunnels until I was out. I came out the same way that I had gone in; the dungeon of Shang Tsung.

There were cells on one side, a river of lava on the other, and the massive staircase that crawled up to the top of the dungeon.

The guards came running to me again; apparently they did not recognize me. They started to harass me for being out of my cell, but I merely leapt toward them and used their shoulders to vault off of.

They turned to follow me, but soon the sound of a monstrous howl could be heard. The guards were curious and looked behind them to see the lava creature.

The red man of lava flung his right arm to the side. One of the guards ducked, but the other was bashed up against the wall with the lava burning him in half.

It was horrific; the top half of the man fell over the bottom half once the lava had gotten so far through him.

As for the other guard, he jammed his spear into the groin of the lava monster. However, lava monsters don't have genitalia, so that guard was bashed with the creature's left arm.

The guard flew far and landed in the lava river. There was a quick scream, but that was it, the man was dead instantly.

That is when the lava monster pulled its right arm off of the wall from when he bashed the first guard. The beast of lava flipped its body end over end down the stone walkway toward me.

The monster was quicker than I could run. So I turned to face the lava creature and he stopped his flips abruptly; upside down. Then its head rose out of his body; out of an unusual place.

Its head tilted to the side as he howled at me once again. I fell backward to the hot black stone walkway.

The two arms of the monster slammed down into the ground next to me as it tried to crush me. Either crush me or cook me in his lava grasp. I ran into a room with a heavy metal door and with all of my might, I pushed it closed.

After that, I latched the door and opened a small shutter to peak at the monster.

On the outside was the monster, with its arms stuck to the ground. However, that did not stop him; the monster absorbed his arms and merely walked through them. His arms then reformed out of his shoulders.

The beast barreled down toward the door and I shut the small opening for my eyes and turned around expecting him to ram through. When I turned around, I found a dozen of Shang Tsung's guards with their spears all pointed at me.

I uttered the words, "What a day." Their spears came toward me and the monstrous blazing monster slammed into the door. The door did not break, but the small shutter to look out had melted through.

The tiny shutter was how the monster got through. He quickly oozed his entire body in half at his chest to get into the room.

I took that distraction and rolled to the floor on my side. Then pointed up toward the red monster and ordered the guards, "Kill him!"

Sure, they shouldn't have listened to me, but they did. One dozen spears plunged into the liquid lava chest of the monster. It was almost laughable.

The beast then retaliated with brutal force that had men melted in half. With only a few mighty swings, the men were either melted from the waist up, or their heads were melted off. The brutal attacks left mutilated men in armor strewn throughout the entire room.

With one guard left, the blazing monster charged after him through another door. The guard stopped short and looked behind him. The monster kept going, but the guard had no where to go.

The red monster charged into the last guard to reveal the reason the guard had stopped. There was only a river of lava beyond that door along with a stone bridge that looked like it had crumbled decades ago.

Man and monster tumbled into the river of lava. Not far behind them, I ran to the door and saw the monster of lava blurred between him and the river.

The monster's arm lunged out of the water and tried to grab me, but he was too far. The hand slammed into the bridge and burned through the stones. The bridge crumbled even more, but the monster was undaunted, he continued to cling to the bridge only to have his arms break off and fall into the river of lava with him.

Eventually the monster's head submerged beneath the lava. While he disappeared, his armor was still evident that he lived. The swirl of dark metal gauntlets, and pieces of chains survived and slowly floated away.

From behind me came an elderly voice, "Blaze has defeated many armies." I turned my head slightly so I could see the figure of a man behind me.

I told him, "But I have defeated him."

"No," I was told, "You survived him. Blaze cannot be defeated." The man then laughed in the tone of a crazy miser.

I turned my body to face him and said, "I recognize you." Then I added him, "There are no flowers this far in a dungeon."

He told me, "There is one flower here, but she can only be picked by the mighty emperor Tsung."

Without a smile I sprang forward with my fist back. I grabbed the miser by the throat and said, "Why are you down here Shang Tsung?"

"You can see; I'm not Emperor," he said with a crazy giggle, before he added, "He sent me; I bring you to him."

I clutched his throat tighter and asked him, "Why would Shang Tsung send a miser to get me instead of his guards?"

He curled his body in fear and proposed the idea, "If I was a guard, I would be dead like the rest." With a lump in his throat, he told me, "If you strike me, then you will have beaten an old man incapable of defending himself."

I laughed as I told him, "You wouldn't be the first old man that I've beaten to a quicker death."

"Sense of humor and beauty," he laughed, "Master likes that in a slave."

I shoved him away from my beautiful body and told him, "Take me to Shang Tsung."

"With eager pleasure," he told me, "Mighty emperor Tsung asks to see you in his personal chamber."

His voice faded in my mind, until we found Tsung's chamber. He had trouble opening the final giant double door and asked me, "Could you please help an old man?"

I grabbed one of the giant doors by its huge golden handle and pushed it open. The light from behind us filled only a sliver of the room. The rest of it was black and it looked like a trap.

However, I had to enter. Once I did enter, I boldly walked to the center of the beam of light only to have the door shut behind me; so much for the old miser being too weak to swing a door.

There was a voice in the darkness; it was a hauntingly deep voice that asked, "It gives me great pleasure to know that you have survived two rounds of competition." The voice then laughed in deep throated delight as he elaborated, "You have gone through two of Shang Tsung's personal bodyguards; Kano and Reptile."

There was a brief silence as I looked around for any light to focus on. After a moment, the voice continued, "I have always preferred the seductive selection of women to assassinate my enemies, instead of the freak shows that Shang Tsung has always chosen to aide him."

I asked, "Why not turn on the lights, so I can see what a freak show you are."

With distain, the voice ordered, "Open a curtain." A long beam of light began to fill the room as a curtain far in front of me began to slide open.

There was an expensive looking throne in front of me; made of gold, wrapped in snakes with a red velvet seat. The throne stood atop of a short staircase with a red carpet.

With the curtains open, the only light in the room came from the moon outside. It had already been an entire day of combat.

Then a pair of white hands caressed my shoulders as the voice told me, "Now where is Shang Tsung?" The pale head of Quan Chi appeared just over my shoulder as he whispered, "I have been waiting for hours."

I turned and recoiled myself from Quan Chi's cold touch. I cowered and spoke to him, "He summoned me too."

The mysterious bald man walked past me, flung his body around to face me and asked, "So where is he?" Quan Chi then flumped down into Shang Tsung's thrown and sprawled his body out.

I then asked him, "So how was your day?"

Quan Chi answered with a smirk and the raise of his hairless eyebrow, "I spent the day dealing with a labor dispute with my two pet oni."

With my arms folded, I postured myself differently and said, "And you tell me this like I care?"

The laughter of Quan Chi echoed throughout the darkened room. He then stopped laughing, threw his body forward and screamed, "If I didn't need you to ensure the death of Shang Tsung, you would have been dead already."

Quan Chi looked at his fingers and added, "You see, unlike Shang Tsung, I have no desire for mortal trysts. Women are used solely by me to doop dopes into death."

With that said the giant doors behind me opened up. In flowed the mighty Shang Tsung. His red robe and scarves flailed in the air as he flowed into the room.

His body came forward without a step. He floated and flowed so smoothly it was as if he was not walking.

The first words out of his mouth were, "I find this disrespect insulting." He looked coldly at Quan Chi in his throne.

The bald Quan Chi told him, "My apologies to you, but I could not find a chair in this palace worthy of my greatness, so I took a seat where I could find one."

Quan Chi did not rise from the seat; he merely smiled at Shang Tsung. I had no idea what to do, so I stood there. Instead, Quan Chi did all of the talking, "Why have you summoned us?"

The seductive and coy voice of Shang Tsung uttered, "Because I have a challenge for you Quan Chi."

With a sly approach, Quan Chi retorted, "There is nothing in this realm that could challenge me."

"So then you accept," wondered Shang Tsung, only to hear Quan Chi reply, "Oh I do accept." He then snipped, "Now what is it?"

The seductive Shang Tsung told him, "You will take on an opponent of my choosing. Is that agreed?" Quan Chi replied, "Only if you take on an opponent of my choosing."

The two of them plotted against one another and said simultaneously, "Agreed." Quan Chi then added with a smile and focused his eyes on me. He then asked, "Now which ninja or specter will you have me face?"

With a smile hidden in the shadows, Shang Tsung told us, "In the next round, you will face a flower; A delicate and beautiful rose with deadly stinging thorns."

"Enough poetry," said Quan Chi who then wondered, "Now who is it?"

With a broad gesture of his right arm, Shang Tsung introduced, "Why Li Mei of course."

I could hear a low growl from Quan Chi in regret to agreeing. However, he was not phased as he ordered, "Bring me the princess!"

Two guards exited the darkness and left the room through the open double doors.

Quan Chi barked out, "You will face a woman who has slain dragons; a woman who has defeated and lead armies; oh and finally, a woman whose love died at your very hands Shang Tsung."

After that was said, fifty guards flooded the large chamber. Two of them pushed open the heavy doors to brighten the room. Then they all took position on the inner chamber.

Lastly entered a beautiful woman, in chains, weighed down by bondage; there were guards pushing her forward to make sure that she entered. One of them kicked the back of her knee and said, "Even Princess Kitana must kneel before our emperors."

All fifty of the spears pointed toward her as Shang Tsung laughed at the choice. His eyes glowed green in the shadow that covered his face. He informed us, "I know exactly how to defeat her and I invite you to watch."

After a moment, he added, "Both of you, Quan Chi and Li Mei."


	21. Chapter 20: Kitana

CHAPTER 20: KITANA

CHAPTER 20: KITANA

The moon had gone down and the sun had come up revealing the new day. Quite a collection of warriors, guards and powerful madmen had gathered in the grand hall of Shang Tsung's palace.

The giant room had large snakes made of gold to trip the walkways and the ceiling. At the center of the room was a giant green tower of energy that I had been informed was the soulnado; a collection of souls that pooled in from other worlds.

These souls gave Shang Tsung unlimited power, but I personally felt it was using the previous emperor's army that gave him unlimited power. The previous emperor Shao Kahn was a conqueror and all of the mighty men were trained to become his followers. If they refused, they were killed right then and there.

As for the women, unless they were Shao Kahn's assassins, they were mere play things. You could tell how they felt about women by the attire that had been selected for me to fight in. There was more silk than body armor. More skin than clothing.

I continuously got smirks and smiles from the warriors around me. Quan Chi would occasionally turn to me and look at me out of the corner of his eye. He pretended not to notice my body, but like everyone else he had to of been full of desire.

Just then, two doors opened at the rear of the room; beyond the giant soulnado at the center of the room. The room fell to a hush and we all looked to see who entered.

Eight men entered, their physical strength was obvious. They all had giant muscles and wore armor across their bodies and helmets that covered their faces.

They were heavily defended, but they carried no weapons, instead they carried a moving pedestal that had a woman on it. The woman rode tall and high above the shoulders of the warriors.

As the pedestal grew closer, we could all see that it was Princess Kitana. She had captivated the room's attention with such a grand entrance. However, I could tell this was not her idea. She was chained to the pedestal, unable to move her arms, body or neck.

Eventually the eight warriors had carried the pedestal to the front of the soulnado that cast a shadow over her body. That is when I noticed she was larger than I remember as a child. Her body was bigger, but not from eating, it was probably from years of fighting against her own father.

Although it had been a very long time since I had last seen Princess Kitana; she looked just as youthful as she had before. Princess Kitana was ageless and beautiful. She no longer wore a mask on her face as she did before, and her hair was immensely long, thick and coiled on the pedestal next to her.

The warriors gently put the pedestal down to the ground in front of the soulnado. Next to her on the pedestal was a pair of deadly blades that I had recognized from my childhood.

Our attention was diverted from a seductive voice that boldly called out, "Your father is no longer emperor." From there, we all looked to see Shang Tsung in his regal red robes trimmed with gold. He looked at her from across the large room.

Princess Kitana gently retorted, "My father has been dead a long time. The man that was the emperor before you was never my father."

Shang Tsung began to walk toward her as he continued, "You are no longer a princess, but a slave." He then took off his robe and threw it to the side. Beneath was his fighting attire that I had seen him in earlier when he had pretended to be Kano.

He then took a fighting pose with his fingers pointed out to make snakes. It was a fitting and evil fighting stance for someone that uses manipulation and deception before he viciously strikes.

Princess Kitana gently told Shang Tsung, "I am no man's slave. I am the voice of my people."

Shang Tsung ordered the eight warriors, "Let us prove who is correct. Unchain her and we shall find out if she is a princess," he then annunciated, "or my slave."

The warriors quickly unchained Kitana from the pedestal only to take the blades in her hands. She first sliced off one guard's head then kicked away his body in a bloody mess.

She then quickly spun and sliced into another guard's stomach and stabbed a third guard in the head. There were manly screams as the rest of them backed away from her, leaving their comrades for dead on the floor.

In a display of beauty, she swung around her body back toward Shang Tsung and her blades opened into beautiful fans with deadly tips. She then fluttered the fans to hide her face and reveal her blue eyes.

When Shang Tsung saw Kitana's fans, he took a different posture. He raised both of his arms into the air and raised his left knee at her.

To start the battle, he threw his left foot forward a few times at Kitana. She then fought back with her bladed fans, but the emperor pulled his body back to dodge the attacks.

He even pulled his body close to the ground with his right hand still up in the air. When she missed he swept her feet, and she nipped back up to counter attack again.

She would miss with her blades and the madman would step forward with a kick, merely to prove that he could get to her. His defensive posture kept him away from her deadly fans.

Without effort, she put her blades into her tall purple boots, and took a crazy fighting posture. Her hand was out in a claw; her left leg was raised and almost coiled around her other leg.

Then she struck forward, she clawed at the emperor, then belted him in the stomach with a punch. She flung her clawed hand forward again and raked his face, covering it with blood from her dagger nails.

Her left leg rushed and her foot flew forward into the injured emperor's face. He staggered back, and angrily took his snake posture again.

He struck over and over again, and each time she would spin or twirl out of the way. His attacks were being side stepped, and she would claw his back or side each time he missed.

Enraged after being knocked around, he turned came forward with another attack. However, Kitana came with her own attack; she sprang forward with her arms out for balance. Her left foot slammed into Tsung's face, then her right foot. She would twist her body in mid air to kick him with quite a pretty kick.

The co emperor tumbled to the ground backward. He was on his stomach when he muttered what he had said before, "I know how to deal with you."

His body silently shifted in the dark corner that he hid in. When he stood up, he was no longer Shang Tsung, but a different warrior.

The warrior had a youthful face, a bare chest, not an ounce of body fat and baggy red pants. After completely standing, he gripped the back of his red head band to tighten it, before he opened his eyes.

He screamed out, "Whoaaaaaaa," and Kitana was greatly taken back by it. She stumbled backward on her heels in fear at what looked to be a less formidable challenger.

There was haunting laughter beside me from Quan Chi who explained, "The Champion of Mortal Kombat; Liu Kang."

I then gestured with my hands toward Quan Chi and said, "Don't talk to me."

The new challenger rushed at Kitana and attacked furiously with punches, strikes and battered her sides. He threw kicks at an amazing speed that did not seem possible. His fury of attacks was beyond comprehension with how fast they were.

Kitana was battered away from the challenger who then flexed his muscles and screamed out in victory. She was slumped on the floor gasping for air as the long scream subsided.

When she regained some sort of sense as to what was going on, she still did not want to be challenged by this new man. She put her arm up to brace herself from his body and said, "No."

However, that merely attracted the challenger's attention. He looked to her and violently shook his body with another scream, "Whu-aaaaaah!"

He then knocked her arm away from him, and battered her thick body with more punches; then a snap knee, followed by a powerful high kick.

She was sent backward, but did not fall. Her body reeled in pain as she held her stomach and her beautiful face.

Her opponent then charged forward, and grabbed her by the wrist. He used his foot to sweep her legs out from under her, before he spun his body insanely and smacked her away with a roundhouse kick from his other leg.

Princess Kitana landed elsewhere in the room, quite a distance away. She rose to her feet slowly and her opponent merely watched her. Once she was up, he was ready to strike.

He raced toward her and flung his body at her. Both of his feet were pointed at her, and he quickly stomped her face time after time until she fell over in a bloody mess.

The challenger fell to his back, braced with his knees, but he quickly stood up. He screamed out another time, "Whoaaaaaaa!" Then he took a dancing posture as he awaited Princess Kitana to rise.

The Princess had a bruised and scarred face as she lied there on the floor. She couldn't get up, but instead her face looked up to all of the warriors that surrounded her in the room.

Her head scanned over all of the red armor of Shang Tsung's army. Then she held her face to feel all of the blood that was on it.

It was obvious that she did not want to be there in the fight anymore. Her opponent merely continued to dance around, ready to attack her if she got up again.

Then her eyes came to me; the only other woman in the room. Amongst a sea of men in red, I was a woman in purple. I was the child that had seen her fight to slay a black dragon owned by the man that would become her mother's husband.

I yelled out, "Get up Princess Kitana!"

She had no expression on her face, just in her eyes as she slowly reached down into one of her boots to pull out a bladed fan. Then she reached into the other boot to do the same thing.

Her body rose and her posture changed. She faced the new challenger in red, but before he attacked, she opened her beautiful fans and fluttered them before her face.

She twirled around, and whirled her fans to cover portions of her body from her opponent. Each spin had the fans at a different position.

Her opponent attacked with his quick fists, and each time he tried to strike him, she cut him with her blades. She continued to spin around him to evade his attacks. Each punch from Liu Kang was met with punishment.

She gave him a slice to the ribs, another slice to the arm. No matter how impossibly fast his hands were, he could not see her body hidden behind the large fans. He paid for each failed attack with his blood.

Finally, he just threw his foot at her shin. He connected and stopped the spin, then he hit her with a snap kick that sent her backward and the fans flew out of her hands to the beautiful floor.

With her on the floor, he screamed as he jumped into the air. He came down with both of his feet to stomp through her beautiful body.

When his feet hit the ground, she had rolled out of the way. She quickly stood up and attacked him with her eagle claws, but he was able to block them all.

Liu Kang countered with a flurry of punches, which were not as fast with his bloody ribs. She was able to block and dodge his attacks, even his fierce kicks.

Finally, he had left and opening for her eagle punch. He was shoved away by her fist to the floor, where his body then shifted back into Shang Tsung.

It was a quick transformation, painless to the demon beneath of the flesh. Naturally, the evil emperor was angered and quickly returned to his feet.

He clapped his hands and parted his arms, which sent a pair of fireballs that flew across the room and seared into Kitana's flesh. She was burnt and tried to put out the fire from her attire.

Then Shang Tsung drew his body forward, before his posture sprang back. A magical green mist came from Kitana's body and flew into Shang Tsung's.

The attack made Kitana feel fait and she dropped to one knee before the emperor. When she stood up, she staggered backward toward the looming soulnado.

She uttered the words, "My soul is too strong to ever be taken by you sorcerer!"

Terrifying green bodies tried to grab the former princess due to her close proximity. Their ghastly green hands reached out for her and almost touched her as they swirled up toward the hole in the ceiling of Shang Tsung's palace.

The emperor lunged with his fingers extended to strike her, but she dodged his attack with another side step. He almost fell into his own soulnado.

He was able to stay out of the reach of the luminescent green souls. That did not frighten the demon and he began to attack Kitana once again.

The soulnado became a backdrop to their battle. Their bodies were mere shadows as they both attacked and blocked one another's strikes.

Behind Shang Tsung were the souls of one million people that tried to grab him. Eventually all of the spectators in the grand chamber could see souls fly out from Shang Tsung. Balls of green energy left the body of the emperor and were sucked into the soulnado.

We could see him grow older and older. His long raven colored hair turned grey and stringy. His youth withered away and turned into wrinkles.

His breaths grew heavy, and he was left with no choice but to get further away from the soulnado. He was tired, but not out of sinister options, as he drew a snake blade from his sheath. With a withered old smile, he swung the sword at Kitana for another attack.

He then drew his body closer to hers and yanked his posture back, which caused another green magical mist to jump from Kitana's body to Shang Tsung's.

The sorcerer grew younger by a few years. The wrinkles on his face still stood, but his stringy hair grew thicker.

Kitana's beauty remained unaffected, except for the blood and bruises. Her body was ageless and had everlasting youth it seemed.

Shang Tsung swirled his blade at her to try and slice her in half, before he thrust his sword forward at her. Meanwhile, Kitana had other ideas; she rolled out of the way, and then sprang her body forward to get some distance between her and the madman.

Her body tumbled purposely to her fans on the floor. She grabbed the fans, but when she rose, Shang Tsung was surprisingly right behind her.

He swung his blade with a slice that could split anyone in two, but she jammed both blades into the sides of Tsung. The dual blades were jammed and stuck into the sorcerer's elderly body.

She then gave him a double punch with her eagle claws that sent him far back toward the soulnado.

The former princess was smug and bloody while she looked across the room to her opponent. She stuck out her tongue to lick her own blood from her lip.

Meanwhile, Shang Tsung ripped both daggers out of his sides and threw them far into the soulnado so they could not be used again. With laughter in his throat, he rose and told her, "I cannot be stopped!"

He then added, "I cannot be defeated!" With more crazed laughter, he elaborated, "Demons reform, they never die!"

Right after that was said, he rushed into the crowd of his own guards and grabbed the masked helmet of a guard. He drew his hand back, and a mysterious green light was torn from the man's body into Shang Tsung.

While I couldn't see the guard's face, his body withered and turned black. Meanwhile, Shang Tsung's hair turned raven colored again, but with streaks of silver and white. His excessively wrinkled face smoothed out.

Kitana continued on an aggressive path, before Shang Tsung could absorb another soul. However, the younger emperor threw the soulless guard at her.

The darkened body of the guard was heaved and dumped at Kitana's feet.

It was a distraction, just enough for Shang Tsung to draw his sword again and come at her with the blade behind him.

He swung the blade to lop her head of, but she ducked beneath it; twice evading his blade. She did a back flip to escape his attacks, but when she stood up to retaliate, he thrust the blade forward.

The tip of his twisted snake sword jammed into her throat. She began to choke as she held onto her neck with her eyes wide opened and focused on her opponent.

She fell to her knees, and kept choking. Blood poured out of her mouth and seeped down her neck and over her bosom. That did not stop her though, because she rose to her feet as she gasped for air.

With a crazed look, she charged at Shang Tsung while holding her neck. She attacked him with a flurry of kicks. Left kicks, right kicks, spinning kicks and sweeps.

However, the emperor merely had to knock her hand away from her throat. We could all see the horrific gushes of blood that came out of her throat.

With finesse, the evil sorcerer flung his body at her with his arm extended. He stuck her in the throat with a strike that would make even a viper proud.

Kitana's body dropped to the ground, unable to breathe. She wasn't dead though. I tried to come to her aide by jumping over the large golden snake that trimmed the railing. Quan Chi was there to stop me, and held my arms with a frightening touch that made my whole body grow ice cold.

He told me, "Watch this."

Shang Tsung walked over to Princess Kitana and informed her, "You won't even be my slave." He continued his arrogant stride to her body as he continued, "Your 10,000 year old soul will be able to sustain my youth for a millennia."

There were no words from Princess Kitana, just chokes of blood that came from her mouth and spattered back onto her face. She could not move at all, so she was forced to listen to his arrogance.

Once the emperor was next to her, he looked her over, before he used his sorcery to lift her body in the air. His arms were out as a gesture to lift her. His hands never touched her and she went high into the air with his gaze upon her.

Then his hands flipped over and he brought his arms down. Her body followed the gestures of his arms and her body slammed into the ground.

His hands lifted again into the air with Kitana's broken body following. Then he flipped his hands and lowered them quickly to cause her body to be battered against the hard floor a second time. This time, balls of green energy left Kitana's body as she approached death.

The third time he lifted his arms would be the last. For a third time, he flipped his hands and brought his arms down to the floor to completely smash the bones inside of the former princess.

She was dead, but looking at me without her eyes being closed. There was either a tear in my eye or hers. I couldn't tell. The one thing that I could see was that she was gone.

Green wisps were pulled from Kitana's crushed body and into the sorcerer's.

He was not done though, because he jumped high into the air and came down with both of his heels. His feet jammed into Kitana's body that sent a wave of green energy out from her. The energy swirled around and was drawn into his body.

With her soul captured within him, the grey streaks in his hair returned to their original dark color. His wrinkles completely disappeared as he returned to a young man, even younger than he originally was. His eyes turned green with energy that surged through him.

He then boldly stated, "I have done what no one else could do." As he still stood on her freshly killed corpse, he announced, "Kill Liu Kang and the former Princess Kitana."

With a mighty roar and a posture that started his hands low and worked them up to the soulnado, he screamed, "There is no one that can challenge my power!"

He turned around and took a step off of Kitana's corpse to walk toward me. The sorcerer was smug and confident with his victory.

As he grew closer, he pointed toward me and proclaimed, "Now Quan Chi will have to fulfill his challenge against Li Mei." With a smile that seemed strange on his face, he added, "May the best of you win!"

Quan Chi still stood behind me with his icy hands on my arms as he told me, "Your Konquest is nearing an end." I could feel his eyes upon me, looking down at my hair, as he added, "You will meet me on the falling cliffs. I've arranged a surprise for our battle."


	22. Chapter 21: The Final Battle

CHAPTER 21: THE FINAL BATTLE

CHAPTER 21: THE FINAL BATTLE

Within a desert region of Outworld stands a series of beautiful and towering plateaus. The plateaus almost reach the blazing sun above them. Below the plateaus are jagged stalagmites that collect savaging buzzards looking for flesh.

If you walk in the desert of the falling cliffs, you can see above your head dead bodies that have fallen from the plateaus only to be impaled on the stalagmites. The dark feathered birds squabble over their next meal as I tread beneath of the falling cliffs.

The trek beneath of the falling cliffs was always too dangerous for the average person to traverse. Rocks from the plateaus would fall off the walls and tumble below. The entire area was highly unstable, and the heat made it deadly.

Once I had climbed atop of the falling cliffs, my body rose and my hair flailed in the eerily silent gusts. Above me the sun was high in the sky and rained heat down to the area.

The plateau itself had holes of steam that came out, proving how unstable it really was. In the distance I could see tall crosses that lined the circular plateau.

Each cross had red cloth that would whip in the wind. Then I noticed that there were frightening corpses on each of the crosses.

Quan Chi stood at the center of the platform, with is pale chest exposed. His only armor was a shoulder pad that had jagged spikes that crossed over his chest to the shoulder.

He yelled out to me, "You were a fool to show up!"

I cleared the hair away from my face and yelled, "You were a fool to accept Shang Tsung's challenge!"

The pale Quan Chi began to pace back and forth as he told me, "I still have a surprise for you Li Mei!"

I tread further to the center of the plateau as steam rose out behind me. Then I yelled to him, "Is it a forfeit?"

"Hardly," he said, before he gestured far to one side of the plateau. Then he instructed me, "Look carefully Li Mei. You will notice something."

I hesitantly turned my head into the gusting winds, and next to the edge was a cross. It was the same as all the rest. There was a body nailed up there at the forearms and feet. The cross itself was away from the edge of the cliff.

"Look closer," ordered Quan Chi, and when I did, I could see the eyeless face of Zhang. He was weakened, but not dead. There was movement left in his body.

Quan Chi yelled out again, "Now look to the other side!" With that he gave a gesture with his arm to the completely opposite side of the plateau.

There was yet another cross, this time with Dru Quilan staked to it. The cross that he was on; was further away from the cliff, but I could hear Quilan yell, "You came!"

In pain, Quilan looked to Quan Chi and yelled, "He said you wouldn't come!" From the mouth of Quan Chi came a correction, "I said she shouldn't."

That is when the plateau began to rumble and Quan Chi yelled out, "These plateaus are highly unstable." Then he added, "Which is why they are called the falling cliffs."

With a smug look, he continued, "I thought this would be an interesting idea, not only must you defeat me, but you must do it," he stopped with a pause, "Before your friends die!"

He then looked to one of the other crosses on the plateau and pointed as he yelled, "Now watch that corpse hit the desert floor!"

The steam rose from across the plateau as the rumbling continued. That is when I could see one of the crosses near the edge with a body on it shake loose. The tall cross fell off backward with a scream from the man tied to it. There was no chance that the man could have survived the fall as each of these plateaus towers above the desert floor.

After seeing Quan Chi's example, I took off running toward Quilan's cross. Quan Chi took off running after me to stop me. He leapt in the air and not seeing his approach, Quan Chi slammed into my back with his feet.

He proclaimed, "It will not be that easy." The devilish opponent took my hair and flung me to the side away from Quilan. Then he called out, "Are there not other people to save other than this man; bodies that are closer to death?"

I stood back up and looked beside me. Another pair of crosses; one with a rotting skeleton on it with its mouth open and worms coming out; the other cross had a man on it pleading for help.

Both crosses were close to the edge of the cliff, so I took off running for the edge. Without hesitation, I leapt up to the cross. Quan Chi oddly did not stop me.

Instead he merely watched and yelled to me, "Focus on this fight and you may save two or three." With that said, he added, "Or at least save yourself!"

I climbed up the cross; the man on it was barely alive, and as I reached to the spike through his right forearm he showed more signs of life. His body tried to jerk from the tormented trap to save himself.

My hand wrapped around the bladed spike and sliced into my flesh as I tried to pull the spike from his forearm. The first spike was yanked out and thrown to the ground below.

As soon as the spike hit the ground, the body withered in front of me. His skin wrinkled up and his eyes disappeared leaving a horrific corpse that I was clinging to. The man's tongue fell out and his teeth could be seen through his withered lips.

I fell down hard on my back, and pushed myself backward away from him. My body backed away on the ground until I could feel the black boot of Quan Chi.

The creepy Quan Chi looked toward the withered corpse and said, "He was closer to death than I thought." He looked down to me with a crazed look.

His tattooed arm wrapped around my neck as he pulled me away and said, "I am a necromancer my dear." He threw me to the ground away from the cross only to feel the ground rumble beneath me.

A different cross fell backward with a rotting skeletal corpse on it. The cross with the withered body was left standing, even though it had shifted a little.

In terror, I continued to push my body away from Quan Chi while still on the ground. He turned to me, and reached to the ground.

Then with a shout, "This is my power," he pulled his arm up and a wisp made of green energy rose from the plateau. The green energy went dull to reveal a solid skeleton made of bone.

Quan Chi did it again and another green wisp of energy appeared and a skeleton emerged. Both skeletons had single handed swords and began to swirl them around to get ready for battle.

Then from behind, the withered corpse grabbed me. It was the same corpse that had been on the cross next to me. The blackened skin pressed against mine and I tried to get away.

Meanwhile, the skeletons advanced and tried to stab me through with their swords. Somehow I managed to avoid the first sword; the second sword was dodged as well to the side of me.

I could hear Quilan's words of encouragement screamed in the distance, "Get me down and I can help you!"

As I fended off the two sworded skeletons, I saw Quan Chi shake his head and say, "No you can't!" The necromancer then used some of his magic to keep Quilan's mouth shut with green energy that surrounded his lips.

My body turned to swing the corpse off of me, and so the skeletons would have something to slice into. They ran their blades into the back of the withered corpse, but not me.

Afterward, I threw the corpse off of me in a summersault fashion and kicked it over the edge.

When I turned around, there were the two skeletons with their blades swirling. They split up to surround me, and each tried to stab me through.

The first skeleton was attacked with a two hit combination as I screamed out, "Mi Zong!" The only thing that I have to say is the bones hurt my hands, but I struck the second again with the same, "Mi Zong" that sent it reeling away from me.

I did a back flip away, only to have one of the skeletons cut off the other's head. That left one more bladed skeleton. It was undaunted, and advanced on me, trying to slice me in half.

The skeleton lunged forward and I side stepped it, before shoving it over the cliff to the unforgiving desert floor.

After dispatching the two skeletons, I walked over to the headless bone body and grabbed its sword. With the sword in my hand, I held it out pointed toward Quan Chi.

I came after him with the blade behind me. My arm was ready to swing and lop off Quan Chi's dead head.

He had other ideas however, as he reached to the ground and yanked up a wall of large skulls made of green energy. The blade of my sword tore across the bone wall as Quan Chi laughed from behind the cover.

That did not stop me; I swung the blade again to knock my way through the wall. The blade shattered and smashed the green skulls of energy away from him. I even tried to kick some of them through.

However, Quan Chi outsmarted me and burst through the bottom of his skull wall. He slid with his body through the base of the wall and slammed his foot into my stomach.

I was knocked off my feet and punched with his cold fist that sent my body spinning and the sword clanging on the ground.

Quan Chi reached to his waist and told me, "When you bring a sword to a fight;" He drew a pair of swords and added, "Make sure that you have two!"

My hand clamored for the sword that I had just dropped. I took a firm grasp of the handle and stood up. He had both of his swords out; dual broadswords.

He and I ran toward one another and clanged in a shout with sparks flying off of our blades. We went back and forth, with neither of us gaining the upper hand. Both of our blades spun and continued to clash.

Both of his blades ended up pressed against my single blade, and he spun his body around to kick me away from him. My body hit the ground and he came at me with both of his blades raised high above his head.

I quickly stood up and gave him an upward slash that tore through his stomach and chest.

With my blade still in the air, both of his swords dropped behind him as he fell to his hands and knees. He began to shout, "Oh the powerful Li Mei has finally defeated me!"

He held his stomach, crouched in a ball before he looked up to me and said, "No. Not really." Then he came off of his hands, so it was just his knees he was on.

Quan Chi then ripped his skin apart, peeling it in a grotesque way. There was no blood beneath, just a fresher layer of skin that was not white and pale, but red like raw flesh.

My sword whirled around my body as I was going to lop off his head, but he tumbled backward to avoid my blade. Then when he got to his knees again he threw a green gobbling skull at me.

I dodged the skull and it flew far past me with a trail of mist behind it.

The ground began to rumble yet again, so my eyes quickly scanned for the next person that was going to fall. Near me was another cross with a living man that pleaded for help.

I dropped my sword to the ground and dashed toward the cross to hear the man's words echo, "Thank you! Thank you stranger!"

When I leapt up onto the cross and crawled up the body, it withered just as the last had. This time it withered into a skeleton instead of a corpse. Its eyes were hollow; there was no flesh, but only the spikes that were stabbed through its forearms and feet.

The skull of the skeleton turned toward me and tried to bite me. So I punched the skull again and again three times until the skull flew off to the abyss behind it.

The ground continued to tremble beneath of me as I heard Quilan again, I glanced behind me and dropped down from the cross holding my head.

Quan Chi had leapt into the air and sliced through the chest of the skeleton with his dual broadswords. At that point, the ground broke way and the cross fell backward with Quan Chi on it.

In fact he completely fell over the edge. Without a scream, or a look of terror; he was gone in an instant.

I looked at my hand to see it was covered in blood from being sliced by one of the stakes. Then I looked to the edge of the cliff. There was no hand that came up. It was just quiet with the gusts of wind blowing my hair to the side.

When I stood up, I carefully approached the cliff. My feet stepped on the trembling rocks and I looked over the side.

With my head over the side, a long blade sprang up aimed at my beautiful face. My head swung to the left to dodge the blade, and the necromancer came back to the top of the plateau.

Without attacking me, he warned me, "You're running out of time!"

Then he yanked his other sword from over the side that he had jammed into the rock wall.

With both swords in his hands he grit his teeth and swirled them at me with his arms parted. He tried to slice me in two multiple times, but I stayed away from his blades with ducks, dodges, rolls and finally a back flip away.

There was quite a lot of space between us, so once again Quan Chi reached to the ground and pulled up another green wisp of energy that formed a skeleton. Then another, and another, and another, and before I knew it, there was a horde of more than a dozen skeletons after me.

Soon the first wave of skeletons came after me without swords. No matter how many there were, Quan Chi continued to uproot energy and skeletons from the ground. There were more than enough to take on a small army.

I did my best to slice through them with my sword. Many of them had their skulls severed from their necks. Others were split in two. Their bones rattled and the ground shuddered beneath of it as steam streamed out.

The wave of bones began collecting under foot, and I'm sure to the sun up above the plateau was covered in a smattering of white.

Their bony white fingers gripped different parts of my body, and I was left to kick at them and try to stomp their undead lives out of existence. I kicked one high into the air, and before it splashed down onto the legion of skulls, I threw the sword up and severed its neck.

The loss of my sword was inevitable and more than a dozen skeletons engulfed me into their mass. After I had lost hope, they yanked my body from its position curled in a ball.

They raised me, spread my body apart and then lifted my body above them. The small army of skeletons then began to move my body away from the center of the plateau.

My head tilted back and my hair draped down toward the ground. I could see they were bringing me to the cliff. I screamed out, "Not like this!"

The horde continued to approach the edge as Quan Chi watched them from a distance. He had maniacal laughter as he yelled out, "Any victory is still a victory."

As we came to the edge of the cliff, I struggled to free myself from their unholy grip. The skeletal minions stopped, only to have Quan Chi yell out, "After your people complete my fortress, their souls will be consumed."

He then instructed his horde, "Throw her over the cliff."

Next to me I could see the skeletons get ripped off of the edge of the cliff and thrown down into the abyss. Entire waves of them were yanked by some invisible force and disappeared beneath me to the desert floor below.

There were no screams from the skeletons, only from Quan Chi, "What is this?"

I could see him turn his head to the eyeless warrior Zhang whose head lit a luminescent blue. More skeletons were heaved over the edge, until the skeletons beneath me were dragged over as well.

The skeletons beneath me were not flung as the others were, probably because I would go with them. From beside the mass of bones, Zhang let out a yell with a strained voice.

That is when the edge of the cliff crumbled beneath of us. Rock tumbled to the desert floor, along with some of the skeletons and I.

My finger tips were the only things hanging onto the cliff. Then hanging on to me were three skeletons; ghastly and grotesque withered and twisted bones that latched onto me.

Knowing their non living state, the three skeletons tried to pull me down from the edge of the cliff. To make things worse, Quan Chi stepped to the edge of the cliff and my finger tips.

He looked down at me with his usual smug smile and said, "I'm going to enjoy this." With that said Quan Chi charged at Zhang and jammed his sword into Zhang's chest.

Quan Chi then called out to me, "There will be no more interference from you."

The bald emperor approached the edge of the cliff once again. I held onto the edge, while Zhang held onto life if he wasn't dead already.

My body continued to be yanked and jerked by the three skeletons, while Quan Chi positioned his foot aimed at one of my hands. He raised his foot and tried to stomp down on my finger tips.

Instead, he missed my fingers, because I moved them away. He then tried to stomp my hand a second time again. This time he missed my hand, but ended up crushing into a hand of bones of a skeleton.

The bones broke off under the heel of Quan Chi, which sent the skeleton down the side of the cliff end over end.

There were other ideas in Quan Chi's head though. He dragged the blade of his sword next to the edge and caressed my fingers.

At that point, the ground that I held onto began to shake and shutter. The black boots of Quan Chi lost their footing and brought them closer to the edge than he expected.

I grabbed onto one of his boots in the shakeup. Then the skeletons on my body began to cling to his as they suddenly became concerned about their own safety.

The skeletons climbed up Quan Chi, only to have one of them punched to dust by the gloved hand of the emperor.

He tried to shake me and kick me off of his boot, but I remained tenacious. That is when he thrust his sword at my face. The first stab missed over my shoulder.

However, I fought back, with the sai from my boot that I had blinded Kano with. I jammed the sai into Quan Chi's thigh until all three blades had touched his pants.

Without hesitation, I used the handle of the sai to climb up the cliff. Once I was up, I gave Quan Chi a swift kick to the face that sent him backward with a puff of dust under his head.

I ran straight past Quan Chi that had to deal with one of his own skeletons on him.

Then I jumped onto the cross with Zhang. I asked him, "Are you real?" "Real and dying," he uttered with a heavy breath due to the sword that was jammed through him.

He then told me, "Save Quilan first."

I didn't pay attention; instead I scaled his body high enough to tear the long blade from his chest with a horrific gush of blood. Zhang let out a painful groan, but I didn't care. Instead I went to the spike jammed through his right forearm.

The ground beneath of us rumbled, and Zhang told me, "Go save Quilan." Instead of complying, I retorted, "You saved me, now I save you." I yanked the spike from his forearm in a horrific combination of both of our blood.

My hand hurt, but not nearly as much as Zhang's entire body. I asked Zhang, "How could you tell where I was?" He uttered weakly, "I'm not blind, just eyeless."

I grabbed a hold of the second stake in his arm, and held it firm enough to slice into the palm of my hand.

Zhang added with a scream as I pulled out the stake, "I could hear the noise!"

The ground rumbled below us and I lost my grip on the bloody stake. I had to take another grip on the blade through his left forearm and I told him, "I'll have you out in a second."

Quilan screamed from behind me, "Look out Li Mei!"

I swung my body to the left of Zhang, only to see a sword plunge straight into the heart of Zhang. There was a spurt of blood each time his heart beat. Zhang's body slumped forward, and swung toward me as I clung to the cross.

In the distance, I could see Quan Chi rip out the sai from his leg. There was no scream from the unholy warrior, but a grit of his teeth and an angry stare at me.

With the sai torn from his leg, Quan Chi threw it to the side.

The ground gave way beneath of Zhang's cross. I had to leave the heavy wooden structure as it fell backward and tumbled into the abyss.

There were no screams, but the sound of a slam when the cross hit either the desert floor or the giant stalactites beneath us. That was the death of Zhang, the man who had saved me quite a few times.

I looked over the edge to see where he had landed, but a gust of wind distracted me. The wind directed my hair back to the fight at hand as it pointed to Quan Chi.

He looked to Quilan in the distance and yelled, "There's only one left!" Then he looked to me as he gripped his sword and called out, "And now I'm going to kill him!"

Quan Chi took off with a staggered run as he went to Quilan's cross. I took off after Quan Chi, to cut him off.

Behind Quilan was the rock cliff that rumbled away. The rocks gave way and disappeared to the desert floor below.

I was easily able to catch up to Quan Chi, and I grabbed him, which caused the two of us to tumble to the ground.

The ground rumbled and churned beneath of us, as Quan Chi struggled in my grasp. He was soon able to kick me away and he quickly stood up again.

The pale man was crazed with killing Dru Quilan. I felt my fat and bloated lip as I stood up. Quan Chi had kicked me far away, and I screamed out, "Fight me!"

That stopped him dead in his tracks and he turned to me with his beady little eyes and said, "You had your chance Li Mei! You chose to save them, and you couldn't even do that!"

Below us the ground continued to shake and tremble. I screamed again, "Fight me and I'll kill you like I did Kano!"

He turned his back to me and with a sinister frown, Quan Chi contorted his neck to hear it pop and snap into place. My opponent was well prepared to fight with his single broadsword in his left hand.

With his back still to me, he said with a calming voice, "Relax." He then turned to me and added, "You'll see him when you're dead!"

Just as he turned to me, I hit him with a sideward palm, "Lui" an open fist, "He" a back kick, "Ba" and a swinging elbow, "Fa!" I had connected with all four techniques, because Quan Chi had given me the opportunity to catch up.

With a roll on the ground, Quan Chi stood up and challenged me with his sword, but I was far too quick for him. My fingers were pointed like needles, "Lui" I swept my leg backward, "He" a walking heel kick, "Ba" and a sweeping kick, "Fa!"

He was battered to the ground and he looked up at me with his tattooed head. Then he snarled his lips and showed me his ugly teeth.

Quan Chi didn't even bother to stand, he knew he had lost. He merely remained looking up to me.

After a moment, he drew his sword went back and flung it end after end at Quilan. I screamed in fear that it would kill Dru. Everything that went through my head was cynical, but then Dru proved me wrong.

The butcher's assistant Dru Quilan moved his head to the left and the broadsword stabbed the post behind him.

I was overjoyed at the thought that Dru was still alive, but I had not been paying attention to Quan Chi.

He swept me backward with his leg, so I fell to the ground. After then mounting me, Quan Chi threw fist after fist at me. Each time his black glove clubbed my face left another bruise on my best feature.

Over and over his fists knocked my head left and right. Finally blood smeared out from my nose and spit from my mouth. My breaths gasped and that did not stop him.

There was laughter that echoed from the sadistic bastard on top of me. Finally after dozens of blows, he stood up from me and continued to look down upon me.

I spit blood to the side of my face only to have it land on my hair that was sweaty and strewn about.

After turning his back to me, Quan Chi looked to Dru. My head rose to see what he was looking at. The ground beneath Dru shook and quaked.

Quan Chi kept his back to me and said, "If you're conscious, you will want to watch this."

There was panic on Dru's face as he cried out for me again, "Li Mei?" My body coiled along the ground as I turned my body to face his.

Still on the ground I slowly crawled past Quan Chi. Ignoring him, I had better things on my mind.

My pace was slow, because I was crawling, so I tried to stand. However, Quan Chi's boot stomped down onto my upper back. My face was sent to the dust that covered the plateau. I exhaled dust away from my face, with my hair draped over me and covered in sweat.

The icy hand of Quan Chi grabbed my hair and pulled my head up to look toward Dru in the distance.

Quan Chi proclaimed, "Because you didn't save yourself, you have lost this fight Li Mei."

After that, the ground broke way beneath of Dru and I could hear his final scream as the cross fell backward. The large hunk of wood along with the ground beneath of it was sucked to the deadly drop below.

With a smug tone, Quan Chi informed me, "The heroine never wins." He then released my hair from his icy cold grasp and stood up to tower over me, before he added, "It's always the hero."

My head slowly dropped to the floor and turned to the side. I could hear Shang Tsung's seductive voice from behind us. He commanded, "Take her!"

He then added, "We will have her soul for our army!"


	23. Chapter 22: The Last Chapter

CHAPTER 22: THE LAST CHAPTER

CHAPTER 22: THE LAST CHAPTER

When my consciousness came back into my body, I was near the soulnado. It whirled and cried out to me to get away. There I lay in the grand hall of Shang Tsung's palace.

I flipped my body over to my stomach and looked around for Quan Chi or Shang Tsung. They were no where to be found, instead there was this army of soldiers; dead soldiers. Each soldier was standing and like a rotten corpse, but it was completely covered in armor with a spear in its hand.

It was the same armor worn by the Outworld army of the Deadly Alliance.

I could hear a strange supernatural howl along with a light of green from the legion of dead soldiers. Then I saw a withered body drop to the floor amongst the soldiers.

The body was of a man and quickly grew withered. His corpse turned black and hollow like Shang Tsung's heart.

I looked around and next to the soulnado was a heap of bodies. All corpses, all black and lifeless just like the other corpse. This was Shang Tsung's doing.

From behind came the words, "I see you're awake." When I turned my head beside me, there stood the black boot of Quan Chi.

Without hesitation, he reached down and yanked me off the floor with his rugged touch. He didn't pull me to my feet, instead he dragged me on my knees as he said, "This is where your fate ends."

Quan Chi pulled me down the isle of corpse soldiers until I could see Shang Tsung. He looked at me with a sinister smile and Quan Chi stepped on the back of my knee so I could not stand up.

Next to the soul stealing sorcerer was a man in a panic. He was being held by two living soldiers in the army's garb.

Shang Tsung explained to me, "Each soul of a hand picked warrior will be transferred into my unstoppable army." With that said, he gestured with both of his hands toward the panicked man.

The sorcerer drew his hands back and magically tore the energy from the man's body. His soul was taken from him and transplanted into one of the corpse soldiers.

Once the energy had been consumed by the soldier, its eyes lit up to a green color. Flesh returned to its withered body and the soldier came to life again with a bone chilling gasp.

The soldier immediately turned to Shang Tsung and dropped to one knee. Meanwhile, the other two living soldiers threw the soulless corpse to the ground as it withered black.

Quan Chi elaborated, "When they return to life, they are under our control by a secret incantation."

My gaze was focused up to Quan Chi, before Shang Tsung distracted me. Tsung informed me, "Once this legion of dead soldiers has been revived, we will send them through a portal and conquer all of the other realms. Our soldiers will march to every world and conquer it!" With that he closed his hand to demonstrate his power to crush things.

Quan Chi jumped in and said, "We've saved a rotten corpse to be the new body for your soul."

Shang Tsung looked to one of the corpse soldiers and told me, "I always did see such potential in you Li Mei." He then gazed upon my body and continued, "You will be my slave, trapped without any will of your own."

With smug laughter, Quan Chi added, "I saw great potential in you as well Li Mei, but for different reasons." He looked down upon me and elaborated, "But after seeing the sinister Shang Tsung in action, he is a more powerful ally then a dead one."

Quan Chi held both of my arms and continued to have his boot placed firmly on the back of my knee. This kept me knelt down before them.

However, I had a different idea, with little breath in my lungs and blood on my face, I uttered, "I challenge you both."

From beside me Quan Chi bellowed a laugh that echoed throughout the grand chamber. He then leaned down to whisper in my ear, "You've already been defeated Li Mei!"

I looked up to him with a crooked neck and retorted, "You made the mistake of not killing me."

Shang Tsung stepped to me quickly and slapped my face with a backhand that knocked my head to the side. He screamed down at me, "You made the mistake of thinking you could win!"

Then he lowered his head closer to my ear and told me, "We have not lived for millennia only to get defeated by a girl with a dream." He rose his body to stand tall again and continued, "This dream of yours will be your worst nightmare; trapped in a corpse, devoid of personality and beauty for the rest of eternity."

With all of his might, he then gave my neck a chop with his hand. My head dropped in a daze staring at the floor below me. Everything went fuzzy and I tried to regain my senses.

I looked over to the side to see Princess Kitana's broken body in a heap on the floor. She had been there since the morning, and insects had begun to collect around her smashed corpse. Her body was withered and broken; probably a trophy to the Deadly Alliance.

My sorrow turned to rage at the fact they just left her there to die. My head slowly rose to face Shang Tsung and I struggled against Quan Chi who merely laughed.

I threw out my right leg and swept Shang Tsung's leg, before I shoved my body back into Quan Chi.

The pale emperor was sent stumbling back into a row of corpse soldiers behind us. I quickly rose to my feet, spun my body around, and clashed my wrists together to send out a jubilant blast toward Quan Chi.

The blast hit him directly, but he merely came toward me in a menacing fashion. He could not be stopped and Quan Chi leapt into the air and landed on me with his feet.

He struck me over and over again with his gloved fists. As he reveled on top of my battered and bloody body, he told me, "There is no grand finale."

After that was said, he placed his boot on my chest and stood tall.

Shang Tsung snarled, "Your soul is mine."

I looked up to him and beckoned, "Let me see your true demonic form."

However, he retorted, "The last thing that you will see is your soul leaving your body." With the whirl of his hands, he magically grabbed the air in front of my chest.

Green energy swirled before my eyes and was pulled from my mind, heart and body. It was one of those three things, but as everything went dark, I could remember seeing the whole room. Not with eyes, but I could feel everything around me; the death and decay in the room; the hopelessness of the green whirling soulnado.

While this was not the end for me, it greatly hindered my journey. My soul was put into an armored corpse of a soldier. I had become one of the followers of the Deadly Alliance; void of all humanity. I was loyal only to them.

The world continued around me, but I had no choice but to follow the will of Outworld's emperors. The only thing that I could do while trapped in the corpse warrior was reflect upon everything.

When I was a soul, I remember being able to feel everything. Being able to know everything around me; perhaps it was the spiritual vibrations of no longer having a body. There were other energies that I could sense and feel.

I could sense that the lava monster known as Blaze had crawled out of the red lava and began a journey. He had been released from his bondage when the mighty dragon egg had begun to hatch.

While I do not know what had hatched from the egg, I do know that it came in the shape of a brilliant light. The light consumed the reptilian body that was in front of it. Reptile's dead body had contorted, mutated and transformed into a much larger being with far greater powers than anything else.

This greater power called to me, and drew me to it. Almost as if a third voice was commanding me, but I was unable to follow it when the voices of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi were so strong in my ears.

I could feel that Kano was still alive, and had crawled to shore out of the black sea. His struggle against death and the dark sea serpents had been over in an exhausting two day battle. With heavy breaths he was still alive, and in great agony.

Finally, I could feel that a band of heroes were on their way from a different world to defeat the Deadly Alliance. One of them in particular was fighting his way to me alone. He struggled against numerous odds that not even I had faced.

There was great passion in his heart and laughter in his soul that made him special to me. Maybe that is because with time he would be my savior and rescue me from an eternity trapped inside a body and mind that was not my own.


	24. Special Thanks

CHAPTER 22: THE LAST CHAPTER

SPECIAL THANKS

First of all, I would like to thank all of the readers, and I will get to that in detail later. Secondly of course, I would like to thank Midway, Williams and the Mortal Kombat team for creating these characters. They own most of the characters and this story was inspired by those characters.

It is funny, because most of their characters were inspired by movies like the Terminator, Big Trouble in Little China, and Enter the Dragon. Much of the Mortal Kombat mythology was inspired by Chinese mythologies and recent discoveries like the mummified army.

If you go back and look in the Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance and Deception games, you will discover that I had painstakingly made the fighting moves and names accurate.

Writing this story was also inspired by over the top action movies. As a story writer that is heavy into great characters, storyline, and juicy, quotable dialog; I needed to learn how to put together over the top action sequences; action sequences that were big, intense, heavy and worthy of special effects movie magic.

That is why all of the chapters but three have a fight scene or action sequence. They were an assignment to me in order to improve in the one facet that I lacked in. I also lack proper grammar training, which is why I can have a book deal signed to publish a book, but never get past the editing phase.

Now that this story is done, I found that it could have quite a few chapters removed that are impertinent. In other words, I can cut out a lot of scenes and make it a quicker read for people. Perhaps one day I will go through it and clean out the unneeded things to shorten up this story.

THE END WILL ONLY COME AT ARMAGEDDON.

My favorite chapter to write was probably 'Kitana.' Its original name was 'Shang Tsung,' and I've even thought of calling it, 'The Death of Kitana.' I did not want to give anything away though. The reason why it ended up being called 'Kitana,' is because the chapter titled 'Sareena' was a hugely read chapter. Meanwhile, the chapter titled 'Enslaved' barely has any readers.

My favorite character to write was Sareena, because originally she was going to be a badass all knowing character with wisdom of the ages. She was going to tell Li Mei the whole story of how she came to be in Outworld. Instead I turned her into a vacant, distant woman that had no concept of reality.

My least favorite chapter to write was 'The Wayfarer,' because quite honestly doing an entire chapter of Li Mei training was difficult to think of a way to do it that wouldn't be tedious or too much like Return of the Jedi. Plus they had to do it while trapped in the confines of a cage so it keeps the Konquest storyline of Mortal Kombat Deception. That was another tricky part; adhering to the Mortal Kombat storyline, because some of it is hard to follow. Plus the detail of Li Mei needing to see and experience all of this, which is why she saw Kahn and Goro after the fight with Noob Saibot.

Unfortunately I had to use battle areas from Mortal Kombat Deception instead of strictly sticking to the Deadly Alliance game. It was originally going to be Kano that had to fight Li Mei at the falling cliffs with the same premise, but all the focus would be on Kano who is a major character, but his role with the Deadly Alliance is minor. Plus there would be nothing really for Quan Chi's scene.

I never actually meant for Reptile to battle against Li Mei, but I wanted Blaze to be fit in there some how. While I do know that blaze is made of fire and not lava, I used a little artistic liscence to make him more unique. Another reason Reptile needed to be fit in was how he becomes Onaga.

HER THROWN WILL COME AT THE GREATEST PRICE.

Now for the details of why the reviewers are so important. I would not have made it past two chapters if two people did not post what a great story it is right off the bat. I had 25 pages written in 2 days, but I only posted 10. I was waiting for reviews.

I blast out this book up to 80 pages in mere months. Then it sat, and sat, and sat due to lack of reviews. Then out of the blue, a year later, someone reviewed it and rekindled my desire to complete it. Now it's been a month and I blast out 60 more pages while maintaining other things in life that need maintaining.

So for everyone that liked the story, you literally have one person to thank for it (aside from the Mortal Kombat creative team and the movies that inspired them). A single person's joy motivates me so much!

Also thanks to the reviewers of this and other stories of mine, I've learned a lot about grammar and how people prefer things. Such as new paragraphs for new characters that are speaking. That could of course get very long, 140 pages can easily turn into 180 pages. So thanks for pointing out the little quirks like that. They only help me to improve.

Now its time for me to close this and say post reviews to get me motivated. Bad reviews even get me motivated as well.

THERE WILL BE MORE BLOOD.


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